The Parallel Prisoners
by Minesniper
Summary: Following the escape of Roman Torchwick, Team RWBY raids yet another White Fang Warehouse. They are ambushed, and when the fighting is over, one member of the team is gone. Luckily they have a bargaining chip to get her back, this story follows the two prisoners and their experiences with their captors. Probably going to be one of my lighter stories.
1. Captured

**Before this gets started, let me say this is my first fanfiction, so if I make a mistake, even a small grammatical error, please let me know! I have the story planned out most of the way, but feel free to suggest things, give me feedback, and whatever else to your little heart's content! Rated T because this is going to be one of, if not the only, story of mine that won't be mostly depressing/ messed up.**

 **No OCs so the guessing game isn't in effect.**

* * *

Chapter one: Captured

Ruby and her team approached the seemingly abandoned warehouse. From the outside, it looked completely normal; however, team RWBY knew that was not the case.

It was two stories tall, with windows on the upper floor to let in light. These however seemed to be mostly boarded up. Once a bright red, the paint on the outside had faded to a dull rusty color. As the team approached it, they remained quiet, only exchanging whispers.

Ever since Roman Torchwick escaped, they had been striking at safe house after safe house of the White Fang. Finally, they had found someone, a poor deer faunus, who cracked under questioning, and revealed Torchwick's temporary base of operations.

"You sure this is the place, sis?" Asked Yang, eying the unassuming building with some doubt. "It doesn't seem to be in use, let alone a criminal hide-out."

Weiss sighed in exasperation. "Of course it looks normal, that's the point!"

"Guys, please, we can argue about this later. Right now we have a job to do." Ruby said as they approached the large structure.

Blake reached the warehouse's door first, and began to pick the lock on it. "Look Yang, it's in perfect condition. Don't you think that's odd for an old, run-down place like this?"

"I suppose so…" she grumbled, finally admitting defeat.

Within a few seconds the lock clicked open, and the faunus carefully slid it off. The four girls got into position to breach it, each checked that their weapon was ready. When they were confident they were prepared for whatever was inside, Ruby opened the door, and the team snuck in.

They had expected armed guards at every corner, White Fang troops on the catwalks, maybe even an Atlesian Paladin. When they entered, though, there were no signs of life. In fact the only indication this place was associated with the extremist group was the staggering number of Schnee Dust Company crates were stacked inside.

"How can the company afford to lose this much?" Weiss said in shock. Her team had found base after base full of dust, and they knew they still hadn't even scratched the surface of the operation.

Suddenly Blake's bow twitched as she yelled "Move!"

No sooner had she said this than the telltale sound of Roman's cane firing rang out. Each of the huntresses-in-training dove for cover behind the cargo containers before an explosion rocked the building. Across the room on the catwalk stood the criminal, Roman Torchwick, laughing to himself as he saw them scatter in the wake of his attack.

"Good evening ladies, might I compliment the cat on her excellent break-in. Unfortunately for her, you four weren't particularly subtle on your way here; four, heavily armed, teenage girls tend to attract attention."

As he said that, White Fang soldiers who had been laying down on top of the crates to hide their presence stood up, and trained their guns on RWBY. With stacks of crates to their left and right, the girls' only escape routes were quickly cut off by two familiar faces.

Yang glared in rage ahead of her, at the girl who had nearly killed her on the train. Her pink and brown eyes looked right back at her, with a smug grin plastered across her face.

At the other end of the aisle was the brutish White Fang lieutenant that had engaged Weiss on the train, surrounded by a few guards. She stared angrily at him and raised her rapier, but was quickly advised against it.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," Roman chuckled, "Drop your weapons, and we won't kill you… probably."

 _Come on Ruby, think of something,_ the red haired leader thought to herself, _I've got it!_ "Yang, we need that semblance of yours," she said under her breath.

"Huh?"

"I'm really sorry" Ruby apologized in a somewhat louder voice.

"Don't you dare!" But it was too late. Ruby unfolded Crescent Rose, swinging it as she did so. In one precise and fluid motion, unbecoming of the weapon's size and weight, sliced off her older sister's bangs.

Her hair head instantly glowed so bright, it hurt to look directly at it. Yang turned to face her sister with a death stare that could scare Grimm. Her gaze settled on Ruby's cloak, which now matched her eyes.

"RRRAAAH!" She screamed in pure rage as she swung her fist at her team leader. It hit only rose petals, and continued sailing into the container behind where Ruby had stood only moments before. When she connected with it, it went flying, crashing into the wall of the large building, the crate above it toppled over along with it, throwing the attacking faunus away.

Turning around and punching again, this time using a blast from Ember Celia to speed up her strike, she once again missed her younger sister, knocking over yet another crate, and more White Fang members. She turned in circles, searching for the girl who had given her an unwelcome haircut, when she noticed Neo leaning against the wall staring back at her amusedly.

She growled, and charged toward the short girl, and smashed her fist into the wall as the illusion shattered. "Why does everything I try to hit disappear!?" The blonde bellowed in anger just before she was caught in the back of the head by Neo's parasol.

Ruby, meanwhile was above the rest of her team on the walkways dueling Torchwick. It seemed to be a standstill, she was too fast for Roman to get in close, and her weapon definitely had the range advantage. Torchwick, unfortunately, had incredibly fast reflexes, and managed to keep her scythe from hitting him. The criminal, unbeknownst to Ruby slid a dust crystal from his pocked into his off hand.

Weiss formed a glyph under her feet and charged at the only standing group of White Fang left, the lieutenant and his guards. Before she got close enough for them to strike her, she planted her blade firmly in the ground. A line of ice crystals shot forward from her, with only the large faunus with the chainsaw able to move out of its path in time, the others were frozen in place, unable to reach their weapons or escape.

Blake inwardly sighed, having been the only one to think about the situation before charging in. As much as she wanted to take on Roman, it looked like Ruby had it in hand. As for the other two skirmishes occurring, Weiss had already taken care of the grunts, and was left facing the brutish lieutenant. While she knew the last time the two had met, Weiss had nearly been killed, from what she heard, the faunus had gotten lucky, and caught her in midair. On the other hand, during their encounter on the train, Yang hadn't managed to land a single hit on Neo, and it didn't look like this fight was going much better.

The cat faunus took one more look around, before jumping into the fray beside Yang.

* * *

 _Oh great_ , Neopolitan thought to herself, _the other one's coming over here to help Blondie, just great_.

Neo performed a back flip to distance herself from the partners, as she tried to come up with a plan of dealing with them. The faunus girl seemed like the bigger threat of the two, since the other couldn't even land a hit, but that didn't mean she could let herself get distracted by her either.

Deciding to knock the black clothed girl out the fight quickly, so she could toy with the angry one some more, Neo teleported behind her and brought her parasol down on the girl's head.

The clone vanished into thin air, as Neo felt a kick from behind send her sprawling across the floor. _So that's what that feels like, her semblance is similar to mine_. Rather than standing up, she teleported a short distance away to make sure they couldn't hit her as she rose from the floor. She lets the two Beacon students rush in before opening her parasol and blocking both their attacks.

As she kicked Blake, her foot once again passed through the once solid shape, and she felt a blow to the back of her head. She stumbled forward before finding her balance, and turning back to face her attackers.

She was suddenly distracted as two things happened simultaneously. First, the White Fang Lieutenant flew across her line of sight, and crumpled against the wall, having been launched from one of Weiss' stronger glyphs.

The second thing that drew her attention from the battle was a large explosion above them, Roman had thrown the dust crystal and shot it, a favorite trick of his, causing a fireball that knocked Ruby out, and sent her hurdling across the room.

By now, several White Fang troops were waking up, and rallied around Torchwick, as he dropped down to the ground level next to Ruby. "Neo, get over here, we are leaving!" He called out to his bodyguard.

She watched as two White Fang soldiers dragged the girl in the red cloak out, while Weiss was engaged by the faunus who had managed to find their weapons. However, Neo realized her distraction was going to be costly as a super-powered fist hit her like a train.

The girl went flying through the air. She landed nearby the door, and looking out, saw Roman climb into a bullhead that had been called to get them out of there. The unconscious Ruby was lifted in with him.

The short girl barely heard her boss yell, "Neo! Behind you!" But she was still dazed by the blow to her head. By the time the warning had registered with her, she felt a sharp pain in the back of her head. Luckily for her, the pain dulled quickly, as her world faded to black before she could even figure out which huntress had hit her.

* * *

 **So yeah that happened. My logic for the fight is pretty much this:**

 **Ruby and Torchwick: Ruby's good, but we saw Torchwick block all of Sun's bullets in Black and White, so I think he could hold his own.**

 **Weiss and White Fang Lieutenant: Think about it, throughout the whole series, the only two serious hits she's taken were when she went into slow motion, and her attacker didn't. (Giant suit of armor punches at regular speed while she floats down, and White Fang Lieutenant grabs her while she's hovering in the air.**

 **Blake & Yang and Neopolitan: We know Blake is a capable fighter, and with Neo being double-teamed, I figured she'd have her hands full long enough to be distracted.**

 **This goes for all future stories, but now would be especially helpful; please give me feedback and post those comments below, it is much appreciated!**

 **Bye!**


	2. Enjoy your stay

**Hello again! So this chapter came out about a week after the last one. Normally I would wait a week, then write the next chapter taking into account suggestions from reviews, but the only one as of now is someone saying they're interested in where the story is going.**

 **Well, here you go! For 5 of you following the story, and the 80-100 who will read this before then next one comes out, thank you!**

* * *

Chapter two: Enjoy your stay

 _Beep… beep… beep…._

The constant beeping was the first thing Neopolitan noticed as she slowly awoke.

' _God, I hate that alarm clock.'_

As she tried to sit up though, she quickly discovered she could not. Her wrists were cuffed to the bed, and she recognized the pressure of restraining straps across her chest and legs.

' _What the hell?'_ She finally opened her eyes, and as they adjusted to the light, Neo's instincts kicked in. She began to take in her surroundings, trying desperately to make sense of where she was, and how she got there.

Neo currently laid in a hospital bed in the middle of a large, high-ceilinged room. Large windows filtered in copious amounts of sunlight, and the entire hall was bathed in the orange rays coming from the early morning sun.

To her bed's right and left were various piece of standard hospital equipment. An EKG, a cart with some sterile tools laying upon a cloth, and IV. She stopped as she looked at it, rather than the clear liquid she had always been given whenever injured under Roman's service, this bag contained a translucent green liquid, as if the normal solution had some strange powder mixed in.

Beyond these were expandable cloth dividers, hiding her view of the surrounding area. Looking ahead of her, she was able to guess what lie behind the obstructing objects. Across the room, she saw a similar setup for a teenager, however his IV contained the clear liquid she was accustomed to. His bed too was flanked by the dividers, for privacy reasons, but from her position she saw more beds. This confirmed her suspicion she was in a hospital of some kind.

Realizing that her bonds were keeping her restrained for the foreseeable future, she let herself fall back, her head hitting the pillow.

' _Ow!'_ The quiet girl gasped in pain. Her pillow did little to slow her head's descent, and when it came in contact with the considerably stiffer mattress, pain shot through her head.

It didn't take a genius to realize she had been injured, that she had been captured, and that she wasn't going anywhere until her captor got a chance to talk with her. ' _I wonder if I can teleport….'_

Try as she might though, Neopolitan couldn't summon the power to move herself. ' _Weird, that hit must have been worse than I thought.'_ To her dismay however, she discovered not only could she not teleport, she also couldn't use her aura at all.

Given that she wasn't going anywhere, the small assassin took time to try and remember exactly what happened, and who had captured her. _'Roman ambushed somebody… I think he left me behind, or… God I don't remember!'_ Luckily for her though, a rather effective aid to memory entered her line of sight when the room's doors swung wide open.

' _Oh… that's not good.'_

Standing in front of her were three teenage girls, with their expressions ranging from cautious to downright _murderous_. She recognized them from her fight. The Black haired one with the stupid bow was the reason she was stuck in this mess, the white haired brat standing to her right was the dust-using fencer who'd dispatched the White Fang still standing after Blondie's little psychotic outburst.

Speaking of the yellow-haired menace, she stood in-between the two. Out of all of them, she looked the closest to walking over to the bed's side and snapping the injured girl's neck. This observation was further reinforced by the way her friends held their hands out in front of her, trying to block her way to Neo.

In front of the three stood a grey-haired man dressed in somewhat formal attire, all of which was colored varying shades of green. In stark contrast to the trio behind him, he stared at her with an almost _amused_ look.

"Hello there, I believe you are the one that Roman Torchwick referred to as 'Neo', correct?" The criminal merely nodded in confirmation.

"I see. Well, allow me to bring you up to speed on the situation at hand; My name is Professor Ozpin, and you are currently in the medical wing of my school- Beacon Academy." He paused for a moment before continuing. "The Atlesian military has taken an interest in this case, as your employer's escape was somewhat embarrassing for them. The single largest criminal in the kingdom broke out of their cell and fled custody from the greatest military power on the face of Remnant, it was a field day for the presses."

She rolled her eyes as she thought _'And it was all me, but of course he gets the credit for 'single-handedly' escaping them.'_ However, Neo was confused as to why this was relevant to her, as it occurred to her that she didn't see any guards wearing the armor of one of Atlas' troopers in the vicinity.

Noticing the expression of confusion on her face, the headmaster elaborated. "I mention this because unlike the White Fang officer, there is reason enough to keep you around that I was able to persuade the general not to sentence you to the same fate he now awaits."

Neo silently wondered to herself what said fate was. _'Do I even want to know?'_

"That reason would be that it would appear that your boss has taken one of their team-members," gesturing towards the girls behind him, "and we would like to see her returned, just as much as he wants _you_ back." The old man took a breath before moving forward in the conversation. "Roman Torchwick has offered us a deal in which my student, Ruby Rose, is returned unharmed, and you, in turn, are set free as well."

Neo smiled as she saw her hard work was noticed by her boss, rather than his usual half-hearted congratulation on 'a job well done' before lighting a cigar and ignoring her for the rest of the day.

"This being said, the exchange is still several days away, and I can't very well leave you alone in here. Beacon Academy does not have any cells, and I do not trust Ironwood not to try to 'renegotiate' the deal if I leave you in his custody." Ozpin sighed thinking about the stubborn man.

"Due to these circumstances, I have taken several precautions; I have assigned Team RWBY here, or what's left of it, to keep watch over you until the day we trade you back." Pointing at the strange liquid she had noticed before, he explained its purpose. It was an aura suppressant, designed to eliminate aura regeneration in its target. This prevented its use as a shield, as well as use of the affected person's semblance.

"You will take a pill of this each day, its effects last 36 hours, so the administrator will have plenty of opportunities to make you take it, should you refuse to do so. Without Aura to augment your strength, speed, endurance, as well as removing any protection from injuries you sustain and the disabling of your semblance, a man off the street could overpower you, let alone a team of huntresses."

' _Vulnerable? As in defenseless? I don't like this one bit!'_ Neo's attention turned back to the professor as he spoke again.

"Finally, the last order of business, I should introduce the ladies who will be responsible for you over the next few days." He gestured to the pale girl in the white dress, "This is Weiss Schnee, Ruby Rose is her partner, as well as one of the first friends she has ever made. She is one of the most ambitious girls to ever walk these halls, but she still managed to accept the girl as her leader, despite a rocky start, and has been a loyal team member since."

' _Great, a Schnee, there won't be animosity because I work for the White Fang, she seems understanding.'_ Neo thought to herself sarcastically.

Ozpin moved over to the Raven-haired girl and put a hand on her shoulder. _'Did her bow just twitch?'_ "This is Blake Belladona, Ruby was the first to speak with her on their first day. She was also the first to accept Ms. Belladonna for who she was." As he said this, the girl introduced as Blake removed her bow to reveal a pair of cat ears. _'Ahhh.'_ "Ms. Rose was also the first to forgive her when they learned she had a past with the White Fang."

' _Great, so one of my guards is good friends with the girl, and the other has reason to be deeply loyal to her- Wait? White Fang? Oh boy… that's two I don't think like Roman and I…. I know I shouldn't, but can it get much worse?'_

Ozpin stopped next to the Blonde girl, whose glare had turned into a malicious grin. _'Oh god.'_ The headmaster noticed her anxious expression and gave her a look of… _'was that pity?'_.

"And _this_ , is Yang Xiao Long. Not only is the girl you and your allies kidnapped her team leader, but she also Ruby Roses' _sister_. The sister who essentially raised her and cared for her day and night, after the passing of Ruby's mother."

At that, Neopolitan's expression changed from one of apprehensiveness to one of fear. _'GREAT, just FANTASTIC. Of all the girls there, the ONE Roman kidnaps, is the one with the sister who sister catches on fire and punches things she doesn't like! God I hope he mentioned he would like me back in one piece as well.'_

The headmaster pulled her from her thoughts as he cleared his throat. "It appears I have a call from your employer right now, girls, don't do anything foolish."

He turned to look at her, "One more thing…." The old man paused for a second before continuing.

"I'm sure by now you've figured out why I assigned these three to watch over you, correct?"

Neo nodded as she thought to herself bitterly, _'because if I step out of line, they won't hesitate to kill me.'_

* * *

' _Uhg... my head….'_

Ruby Rose slowly propped herself up on her elbow as she blinked her eyes, trying to adjust to the new light, as well as shake the drowsiness from her head. Among the first things she noticed was this wasn't Beacon, her team wasn't around, and the men with guns standing with their backs turned towards her didn't look friendly.

She noticed that aside from her weapon being gone (duh), her belt was missing too. She felt like something else was amiss, but she couldn't place her finger on it. Subconsciously, she reached around to fiddle with her cloak as she did whenever she was anxious and then stopped when her fingers met air.

' _No… no, no no no no nooo! Mom's cloak, I can't lose that!'_ She shook her head, and tried to push the thought from her mind, _'I'll find it later, but now I've got to get out of here!'_

Her huntress training kicking in, Ruby immediately began to assess the situation, and take in her surroundings. She was in a poorly lit cell with iron bars between her and freedom. Behind her, high up on the wall was a tiny window, also secured by iron bars.

' _Not that it matters, I couldn't fit through that anyways.'_ Aside from that, her cell's walls consisted of concrete which looked as if it had seen better days. She was currently laying on a small blue mat, and had a tan blanket draped across her. Along the side of the small room, there was a chair and a desk.

Standing up to get a better view of her prison, she bumped her head on something. Looking behind her, a pair of shackles were attached to the wall by sturdy chains. Upon closer inspection, the only things that looked new or reinforced in the cell were the bars, and these cuffs. One of the men standing outside her cell took note of her movement, hearing the chains clink against the wall. He turned to the other and spoke.

"She's awake, go get the boss and tell him the news."

Once his comrade had left, he returned to standing at attention. Ruby quickly noted that he wore a White Fang uniform, with the mask to boot. Using his formality against him, she snuck up to the man who was preparing to salute for when his boss entered.

She approached the line of bars and snaked her arm through them; before he could react, Ruby knocked the faunus out by grabbing his head and yanking it back into the metal rods. As he crumpled to the floor, Ruby searched his body for the keys to her cell, but to no avail.

"Rrrr, I was _so_ close, why couldn't he just have a set of keys?"

"That, _Red_ , would be in case of occurrences such as these." The orange haired crime-boss named Roman Torchwick waltzed in with the faunus who had gone to fetch him earlier.

As he sauntered towards her, he gently nudged the grunt laying before him with his foot. "Sleeping like a baby, adorable."

Roman's fake expression of compassion was replaced by its normal malicious grin as he brought his leg back. He swung it forward and drove it into the faunus' gut. _Hard_.

One cry of pain later and the guard was slowly rising to his feet, his right hand clutching at the rapidly forming bruise. "Y- yes sir?" He gasped out.

"I thought it would be obvious, but apparently not." Roman paused to inhale deeply, "When I said 'keep an eye on the prisoner', I didn't mean 'lean against her cell and take a smoke break!'" Roman raised his cane, Melodic Cudgel, and the man flinched back.

Luckily for the poor soldier, Torchwick had only done this as a threat, and slowly lowered his weapon, eventually leaning against it. "Now get out of here, send someone for the next watch, and don't do anything stupid."

The faunus quickly looked at Ruby- most likely shooting her a glare; but behind the mask, she couldn't tell- before scampering off towards the door.

"Now Red, let's have a little chat, shall we?" Roman pulled a chair away from a wooden table outside of her cell, and leaned back in it, smugly grinning at the young girl.

"So where to start… Ooh! I know! How'd you find me… again?" Ruby just stared at him defiantly.

"Oooh, strong silent type, huh? How's this, I can make things very difficult for you if you don't want to talk to me."

Ruby assumed he meant to hurt her, so she pretended not to be afraid, hoping to make him believe hurting her wouldn't work. "Why don't you just kill me now and get it over with, I'm not giving you anything!"

Torchwick was suddenly overcome with laughter, he nearly fell out of his chair, his eyes watering. "Good God, Red. I may be a sociopathic thief working with a terrorist organization, but I'm not _sick_! I'm not going to kill a kid because they have some misplaced belief they're a hero. Nor do I believe for a second you meant a word of that!"

After his outburst at the audacity of what Ruby had said, Roman began talking again. "Besides, your friends back at that damn school want you back unharmed, and I don't want a bunch of huntresses to have a personal vendetta against me."

Seeing she wasn't in immediate danger, Ruby said, "Yeah, my sis'd probably kill you."

"Ice Queen's a Schnee, and the black haired girl's faunus… Oh god, don't tell me Blondie's your sister, and didn't she try to kill you for cutting her hair?"

"Her name's Yang, and yes." Ruby said in confirmation. At this Roman paled.

"Could you excuse me a moment, I need to make a phone call." Torchwick walked over towards the table, and picked up a scroll, "Hey there, me again, I have a _small_ request, can you keep Neo a safe distance from the blonde one, I don't think they should be near eachoth-… Of course I know what a parole officer is, what does that have to do with that crazy b-…."

Roman's eyes widened and his jaw dropped. "I swear to _God_ if she gets killed, I'm taking it out on little red psychopath here!" After a moment he turned off his scroll and placed his head in his hands, leaning on the table.

"That reminds me, not complaining or anything, but why are you giving me back?"

Roman turned back to the caged girl. "Because your _sister_ managed to catch my bodyguard and/or personal assassin by surprise, and now Beacon has her in captivity. You're probably the most annoying child I've ever come across, but Neo's worth 2 of you in a fight, and honestly, she's saved my ass a fair few times."

"Anyways, back to the matter at hand, while I can't hurt you, a few personal belongings of yours made it on the plane back here. I could melt down that crazy death contraption you have, toss out the belt, burn that red rag you call a cape…."

As he said this, Ruby's eyes grew large. "Ooh, struck a nerve huh? The cape of all things, why not that stupidly large horror-show of a weapon?"

"Please don't," Ruby whimpered, terrified at the prospect of losing the last thing she had gotten from her mother, "It's the last thing I have to remind me of Mom…."

Roman looked at her for a second before saying, "I have something like that," He tapped his bowler hat with Melodic Cudgel, "last thing I got from my dad."

"Your dad gave you a bowler hat?"

"No, I stole his wallet and used the Lien to buy stuff, last family reunion I ever went to…."

Roman brought his focus back to Ruby, who by now was sitting cross-legged on the floor. "So tell you what, you let me know what I want to, and I won't let the animals use your superhero accessory for a kindling, deal?"

Ruby hesitated, she didn't want to tell him anything, but she didn't want to lose the last thing she ever gotten from her mother. "I'll tell you some stuff, but I'm not going to tell you anything you want to know."

"Close enough. How'd you find me?"

Deciding it wouldn't help him out too much, she answered. "Random grunt, don't even know his name, cracked in an interrogation."

"How'd you find us back at Mountain Glen?"

Again, an answer that wouldn't really help him much. "A sinkhole dropped me on top of your operation."

"What's your name?"

Ruby paused at this. Why did he want to know her name? _'It's not like it'll help him much.'_

"Ruby, Ruby Rose."

Torchwick smiled as she said this. "Well, _Ruby_ , it's been fun, but I've got a busy day ahead of me. Just don't cause any trouble. You're safe since I need you to get Neo back, but if you escape, you're no use to me."

He walked off leaving Ruby with a few last words.

"Those shackles on the wall are for more difficult prisoners, don't make me reconsider your living conditions."

* * *

 **Thank you for reading chapter 2! Suggestions are really appreciated, and even if you're not interested in the story, please tell me why so I can maybe fix it for other people. And as much as I love people saying how they think something I've done is interesting (as opposed to the "I'm very disappointed in you [insert my super-secret name here]" I get from friends), it'd be nice to get some constructive criticism. That being said: Roast me, point out all the flaws, and beat me over the head with them!**

 **As you can see, this Roman isn't a total ass, he's actually rather nice. Neo actually CAN talk, but I'm keeping her quiet these first few chapters to prove a point, don't worry though, she's going to start speaking next chapter.**

 **Differences between characters in this story and the one I'm planning to write after this. In this one: Roman's a decent guy (ish), Neo can talk, Neo isn't a murderous killer, Ruby has a happy story-arc all things considered. MUHAHAHAHA!**

 **Hopefully you'll come back for the next chapter!**

 **Bye!**


	3. Day one

**Hello again! First off, chapters of Parallel Prisoners will be coming out less frequently, as I am now writing two stories at once. Along with this one, I am continuing Dragon441's story 'Hollow Fragments', the sequel to 'Tragic Assumptions'. The first three chapters of that are the ones he uploaded before he passed it on, with a few edits by me.**

 **Before reading that, I'd advise you read the original, which can be found on Dragon441's profile. Enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

Chapter three: Day one

Despite the fact she was in the clutches of a faunus rights extremist group, without her friends or family to comfort her, there wasn't much for Ruby complain about.

Obviously the less than desirable living conditions weren't great, but Ruby had slept in worse places, like her time in Mountain Glen. The food was awful, but she was prepared to go days without food in emergency situations, so anything at all was nice.

In reality, despite the circumstances, her largest grievances were; boredom, an unacceptable lack of cookies, and not having the red cloak she was so fond of in her possession. _'Honestly, I've been kept healthy, I'm not injured, and I'm going home in less than a week. If this is the worst I have to deal with, I really can't complain.'_

Since her days were spent almost entirely in her rather cramped cell, Ruby spent the hours letting her mind wander. The guards changed every now and then, and Ruby started to recognize the pattern of whose shift it was.

Right now it was a quiet bear faunus's turn to make sure she didn't try anything stupid; not that she would, Ruby had already realized the only way out was when someone let her out intentionally. Soon, though, his time would be over.

After him came a wolf faunus that didn't seem too bad. When he first came, he actually made an effort to ease her time somewhat. He'd reassured her that she'd get home safe and sound, struck up a conversation with her, even tried his best to keep her entertained.

He was clearly an older member, he wasn't as angry as the new recruits who were still working through with whatever pushed them into joining the White Fang. He seemed rather wise, he understood not all humans were evil, and knew that even if, as a huntress, Ruby had disrupted their plans repeatedly, it was not out of spite, but her belief that justice must be upheld.

That said, he was unwavering in his choice to join the organization. The faunus, who Ruby found to be named Bradley, believed that the peaceful ways of the past were ineffective, even if their current agenda was excessive.

While not stereotyping all of humanity as racists, he'd definitely felt the cruelty mankind was capable of. As to why he was going out of his way to be kind to her, Ruby could only imagine he didn't agree with the kidnapping of a 15 year old girl, even if they were a huntress.

"Theodore, you're free to go, get some rest." The bear faunus just relieved from his position as night guard grunted, and shuffled off. "Hello again, Ruby."

"Hey Bradley! How's your day going?" She asked him it as if they were old friends who had bumped into each other in town, rather than a hostage talking to her captor. Since she never felt as if she was in danger, Ruby found it easy to act naturally around him.

Their conversation went back and forth for a few minutes, eventually Ruby started asking some questions, as she was curious of several things.

"Hey, Bradley, what do the other faunus think of me, and the whole 15 year old girl as a prisoner thing?"

The wolf faunus sighed before answering. "Most of the others see you as just another prisoner, not to be hated, but they aren't exactly sympathetic. Then of course there are some who _despise_ you; for being human, for being a huntress, for 'trying to take their freedom'. And a couple of us are just glad you're lucky enough to be set free soon."

"Why are you and the other ones you said agree with you about me so nice? I mean I have caused you a lot of problems, why don't you just hate me like the rest of them? Not that I'm complaining…."

Bradley answered her, "honestly, it's because I know why you do what you're doing. I understand the White Fang has been doing some questionable things lately. I know that the people we hurt are just as innocent as the faunus we are trying to protect; but for every robbery, every crime we commit, another person loses the nerve to discriminate against our kind. We've been getting better treatment in just a few years of this than we got from many years of peace and a _war_."

He paused for a moment before continuing. "You fight for the same reason I do, but for different people than I do. You're fighting for justice, protecting what you hold dear. I do the same; but while you protect the citizens of Vale and Remnant as a whole, the White Fang is working for the ones who need it most."

Ruby thought about that for a minute. She'd never really thought about it like that, while she'd always known they were trying to do something good, even if the method was misguided; Ruby didn't really think about it as fighting for justice until now.

' _I wonder if some people think of hunters and huntresses like that, excluding the White Fang of course, I know what they think of me now.'_ Ruby shook the thought from her head, trying to focus on her conversation.

The two of them moved away from that topic, and talked for a while longer. Eventually Ruby began to get tired, so she laid down on the mat. Bradley quieted down to allow her some much needed rest. Her eyes slowly shut as she fell asleep, wondering how the girl her team had caught was being treated.

* * *

"Alrighty Ice cream, time to set some ground rules, first, don't touch any of our stuff, if you do, I'll make sure you never want to do it again! Number two…." Neopolitan zoned out as the girl introduced as Yang started blabbing on about dos and don'ts of being a prisoner. All that was on her mind was how she was going to escape from these dimwits.

The four girls, Neo and the three members of RWBY, were walking down the halls of Beacon. They were bringing her to where she would spend the next several days. As they went, Neo was taking note of every corner she turned. They'd passed the main courtyard some time ago, and she wanted to remember where the main exit was if she broke out. _'When, not if. These fools have no idea just how careless they're being.'_

The whole schools was packed with over-confident, unobservant morons. They assumed since they gave her a pill to take away her aura, she couldn't be a threat. _'Well, that's where you're wrong.'_ While Neo couldn't outright fight them off, and with their aura and training, no sneak attack was likely to succeed, she was still one deviously smart girl, and was already trying to form a plan to avoid the aura suppressants.

Neo suddenly fell backwards as she felt the overzealous blonde push her back against the wall, her hair seemingly glowing. "Hey, you get to walk around practically free, while my sister is probably sitting in some God-forsaken cell in the middle of nowhere. The least you could do is pay attention and not make this any harder on us!"

"Maybe you shouldn't push around people just because they didn't want to listen to you list off a bunch of obvious rules with some very unoriginal, vague, or otherwise pathetic threats for each one. I've been captured and am being held until a you trade me back for your teammate, I think it's pretty clear what I should and shouldn't do if I want to get out of here!"

Yang, rather than being angry, just sat there with a look of surprise on her face. "Holy shit, it talks…."

Neo just looked back at her questioningly. "Well… it's just that every time we've met you, you've never said a word." Blake said from behind her.

The assassin shrugged her shoulders. _'Why would I have needed to talk? Three of the times I was fighting them, and in the infirmary, simple gestures did the trick. I just don't talk much.'_

Weiss came up next to her and said, "So you're just a quiet person, that's it? We thought you were some insane mute, and instead you're just a quiet person!?"

Neo nodded slowly, not understanding why she was so upset. She guessed the girl was just always like this.

"How? Are you this quiet when your boss is talking with you? How can you keep up a conversation with… _anyone_ , when you barely talk?" Weiss asked incredulously.

Neopolitan rolled her eyes and swept her arms out to the side, indicating that this was a perfect example.

Blake put a hand on the white-haired girl's shoulder and explained, "Weiss, she's held up a conversation with us for a whole minute, and the only thing she's said was a complaint against Yang's unnecessary roughness, and that's how it started. This argument you're having is just proving her point."

' _At least one of them isn't a total idiot. I'll have to be careful around her though, she seems sneaky.'_

The group arrived at a door in the hallway, and Yang pushed it open. Walking inside, Neo came upon what is possibly the least safe sleeping arrangement she'd ever seen. Her eyes widened in shock that any of them felt safe sleeping in this disaster of what she assumed were bunk beds.

"They only _look_ unstable." Weiss explained. All Neo could do was shake her head in disbelief.

Weiss turned to address her teammates, "Alright, since we can't very well take her to class, or leave her alone, one of us will go to a class and take notes. When the class is over, they'll come back, and someone else will go to the next one. That way, we'll still get everything from class, but we'll also have two of us on guard duty at all times."

Blake checked the time on her scroll, "Weiss, it's 8:50, you should head to Oobleck's class. Don't worry about us, even Jaune could handle her at this point. Speaking of which…" She held her hand out to Neo; in its palm, was a small white pill.

The three huntresses watching intently as Neo put the pill in her mouth and swallowed. "Alright, that'll be good for today. Keep an eye on her you two." With that, Weiss walked out the door, closing it behind her.

The next several hours were some of the most boring ones in Neo's life. Just sitting at a desk with nothing to do. She had a scroll, but it only had a couple games on it, and they'd disabled its connection so she couldn't contact anyone, but it also meant she couldn't watch any videos or download new games. She was relieved when lunch came. While it had been boring when Blake and Yang had watched over her, Weiss had come back and traded places with Blake for the second class of the day. This meant for the last hour and a half, Neo was subjected to unceasing questions by the heiress, and enough ice cream puns from the brawler to make her want to jump out the window.

However the cat faunus had returned at last, and the four of them went off to the school's cafeteria. _'I hope the food's better than the slop the White Fang serve.'_ As it turns out, it was. The food there was very good, and Neo happily went up for multiple servings. As she was returning to her seat, Neo noticed a vending machine in the corner of the dining hall.

"I'm going to get something from the vending machine, don't freak out." As she hoped, since it was on the opposite side of the room from the exit, and she was without an aura, the careless teens let her go. She knew they were watching her, but they couldn't tell exactly what she got. Taking her wallet out, she removed some of the lien Ozpin had left her.

' _Please have them, please have them… Bingo!'_ Neo smiled to herself and could barely her laughter as she inserted the lien and pressed the buttons to dispense a container of white tic tacs. _'I know they're dumb, but if this works, I will have a new level of respect for their obliviousness.'_ To disguise her purchase, she quickly supplemented it with a few chocolate bars before returning to her seat.

"Whatcha get?" The blonde lazily asked. In response, Neo simply held up the candies –minus the tic tacs- and shook them. "Alright then, but don't think they're all just for you. Be nice and share."

Neo raised an eyebrow skeptically. "I'm kidding, don't worry, I'm not going to take your sweets from you." _-'Damn right, no one takes my candy.'-_ "Yet." Neopolitan glared at her for a moment, before returning to her meal.

The rest of lunch passed uneventfully, though Neo could barely contain her excitement as they returned to their dorm. Once they entered, Neo was left with Weiss and Blake, as Yang had left for their combat class. Weiss immediately returned to interrogating her, but the faunus stepped in and told her to give it a rest.

While the two argued, Neo went into the bathroom. Opening the cabinet, she quickly grabbed all of the pills and removed them from the container. Counting them out, she then took an equal number of tic tacs and used them to replace the aura suppressants. Taking the pills and remaining tic tacs, she put them in the toilet and flushed. After she washed her hands, she casually tossed the container in the trash, and walked back into the dorm.

' _This is going to be hilarious!'_

* * *

 **Yes, I am writing that team RWBY, minus their leader, is outsmarted by a girl with tic-tacs. Why? I think it's hilarious that huntresses in training could fail their mission due to pill shaped mints. There were other things I could have done, but I figured I'd just go with the silliest thing I could, and accept the story for its ridiculousness.**

 **Once again, the chapters will be coming less often now that I'm writing two stories at a time. I will most likely alternate which story I upload a chapter for, unless something happens I get stuck on one of them, but I will keep updating them when I can.**


	4. Same old, same old

**Yes it's back. I was almost late a day, but I got it out. It was actually done earlier, but I wait some time to review it and proof read it etc. That being said, this one didn't have nearly as much time in the 'review' stage so there might be more mistakes than other chapters, keep and eye out and let me know if you find them.**

 **My break is ending soon, so the true test as to if I can keep up a weekly upload schedule will be put to the test. In all honesty, I don't know if I can do it. I will try for biweekly though at the worst. If I can do it, then I might have a surprise for all of you! Enjoy the chapter, and as always, review and whatnot.**

* * *

Chapter four: Same old same old

' _This can't be happening. It simply can't be real, I don't know how much more of this I can take!'_

Neopolitan was doing all she could to prevent herself from doubling over and falling to the floor. Her stomach ached, and she knew that if she let her concentration drop for even a second, her face would surely give away her plans. It was all that she could do to keep up her calm exterior when deep down she was dying…

Of laughter.

For three days now, every morning, one of the girls from team RWBY would head straight to the bathroom. When they returned, the huntress would, with their weapon at the ready, force Neo to take the 'aura suppressant' with the most serious and determined look in their eye the assassin could imagine. _'They think they're intimidating me into compliance, it's hysterical.'_ Unfortunately for Neo, were she to burst out laughing at their failure to recognize the pills so vital to their success were swapped with tic tacs, they would realize something was amiss; all her plans would be ruined.

The only thing that kept her from caving in and breaking down into mirthful giggles was the knowledge that if she could keep her composure now, the girl would have a story to share with the criminal underworld that they'd never forget. The idea that the future defenders of all civilization were beaten by a young girl and a product from a vending machine was like a dream come true to Neo.

"Alright, alright already; I've taken your stupid pill, can I go back to bed now?" Neo asked sleepily to the white haired heiress who was smirking at her. Weiss nodded, and woke her two teammates quickly. They spoke for a bit, and then the Schnee girl left for class.

With only Blake and Yang around, Neo relaxed. Over the past few days, this had become her favorite pair to have watching over her. _'I'll have to wait for their shift for when I make my escape later.'_ Her aura was just coming back to full strength, as both the effects of the drug, as well as her injuries, slowed it considerably. With it having worn off though and her recovery over, she would be ready to break out by tomorrow.

The reason she preferred these two was simple. Yang was careless and no match for the tri-colored girl, and Blake, while smart and attentive, placed too much faith in Neo's compliance. She seemed to think that Neo deserved a second chance. _'Idiot'_. Together, these two didn't pay enough attention, and would be easy to escape from. Weiss however, would always keep her eye on Roman's little henchman. More than that, her nagging and criticism of the others' complacency left them just as alert.

' _I suppose I misjudged earlier, she's the one I need to keep an eye on.'_ Neo went into the dorm's bathroom. With no windows or exits, the team didn't think she'd attempt an escape, and as for the pills stashed there, they possessed a misguided train of thought.

' _What's she going to do? Toss them out? Hide them? If she gets rid of them, we still have plenty of time to track her down, bring her back, and hook her up to another one of those IV bags.'_

It was this thinking that left them completely blind to the possibility she could substitute the pills with something else. It was all working out perfectly for her. The very best part about it was that with the solitude of the bathroom, she could secretly gauge whether or not she was ready to escape.

She spent her time in there quickly investigating the current capabilities of her illusions, teleportation, and aura control. Of course, she had to come out reasonably quickly to avoid suspicion, but it was more than enough time for her.

By now she had deduced her aura was capable of projecting her illusions, and teleport short distances. This was all Neo would need to stage her get-away. Without any distractions, she would be able to outmaneuver her captors, and escape to the crowded city, where any hope of apprehending her would be lost.

Suddenly, from outside the door, a commotion ended any chance Neo had of sleeping her time away. A loud _thunk_ and the sound of metal and other gear clattering against each other turned the trio's attention to the hallway. Blake look concerned for a second reaching for her weapon. Soon enough though, unintelligible voices were heard from the hall, and the faunus relaxed visibly.

While Neo had no idea who had said what, the other girl's superior hearing allowed her to distinguish who it was. "JNPR's back, Yang."

The blonde cracked a smile and strutted over to the door. Opening she yelled in a cheery voice, "having some trouble with the door Jauney boy?" Neo could see through the doorway and saw four beacon students with what looked like weeks' worth of gear on their backs.

"Yang?" A red haired girl said in a surprised tone, "Don't you have a class right now?"

The boisterous girl's smile wavered almost imperceptibly, only caught by Ren. "Special circumstances… anyways, I thought you didn't get back for a week, how was it being deputies?"

An orange haired girl rushed up to Yang and started to talk as if she'd just had caffeine injected into the base of her skull. "It was _awesome_! We had so much fun! During orientation, they said we were going to protect the village from Grimm _and_ criminals! I asked if we could break their legs, and the sheriff actually said _yes_!"

Yang looked to Ren confused as to why he'd do that. "He thought she was joking, and she didn't pick up on his sarcasm; hence why we're back early. Someone tried to break into a store, and now he's in the Intensive Care Unit, we only got off with a warning since the sheriff technically did say she could do it."

"I feel bad for the guy." Jaune said, "still, Goodwitch gave us the day off to get settled in again, so if you've got time off too, we could hang out once we unpack."

Blake called out from her bunk, "Sounds good! See you in a couple of minutes then." With that Yang closed the door and walked back to the room.

"So… you going to introduce me to your friends?" Neo said with a smile.

The faunus rolled her eyes. "Team JNPR, they're our friends. Thanks to that little stunt your boss pulled a few weeks back, their mission was postponed. They've been gone for a while, but as you see, they just got home."

"Hopefully they're more entertaining than you two." Neo had done nothing interesting for four days, and it was starting to get to her

Yang just smiled sweetly, "Don't worry, I'm sure you and Nora will get along _just_ fine." Neo sensed an air of danger, realizing that Nora was most likely the hyperactive one with a pension for breaking legs. She shook her head vigorously.

"Keep her away from me please."

A few minutes later, team JNPR filed into their neighbor's dorm. After a few friendly welcome backs, and a few of their missions highlights, with exaggerations compliments of Nora, their conversation turned towards how RWBY had been fairing in their absence.

"So," Jaune began, "I heard you guys were off busting White Fang bases while we were gone, how's that going?"

Ren looked around the room, thought about what he'd seen earlier with Yang, and he put it together. "Yang, where are Weiss and Ruby, and who is this…."

Blake sighed, Yang shifted in her seat uncomfortably, Neo smiled. "Weiss is in Port's class right now taking notes for us. Ruby… Ruby was captured by Torchwick, and this girl is her ticket back."

Jaune, Nora, and Pyrrha gasped, brining their hands to their mouths as their eyes widened in shock. Ren shut his eyes and breathed in calmly as he grimaced slightly.

Blake decided to elaborate on Yang's earlier statement. " _This_ , is Neopolitan; Torchwick's personal assassin, bodyguard, and whatever else he needs her for."

"Prison breaker, don't forget that one!" The multi-colored girl said playfully. Yang glared at her. Nora looked ready to kill her, but Ren stepped in front of her, and took her into the hallway.

"Then what's she doing in here?" the Amazon asked suspiciously.

Blake walked over to her friends. "Ozpin doesn't have anywhere to keep her locked up, he doesn't trust Ironwood, so we're guarding her until we get to trade her back for Ruby."

Yang spoke up. "Ozpin has her on aura suppressants, as well as us keeping an eye on her. One of us goes to classes, the other two stay here with _her_. When it's time to go to bed, we take turns keeping watch."

Neo looked at her in surprise.

"Yeah, we don't exactly trust you, and we're not risking anything. I would have thought you'd check to see if you can escape at night." In truth, Neo hadn't. _'It wouldn't have worked given what she says, but I should remember it. Sometimes the best solution is the simplest one.'_

"Escaping while you sleep, how did I forget to try that?" Her comment was largely ignored, simply receiving a few watchful stares before the conversation began again.

Jaune looked at Yang with concern in his eyes. "Do you know how Ruby's holding up?"

"No." The blonde said shaking her head sadly, "Part of the deal is that she comes back unharmed, but we haven't actually been allowed to speak with her or _anything_. I'm really worried about her."

"Don't worry Yang, we'll make sure to keep an eye out for ice-cream girl, just in case!" Nora said as she popped her head in through the door that was slightly ajar. While it was in her typical happy voice, a quick glare in Neo's direction made it clear she wasn't overjoyed with her.

"Yeah, we're all here for you guys!" Pyrrha said with some confidence in his voice, "We'll have Ruby back before you know it!"

' _Great, now I've got these dorks watching me like hawks as well. I just hope they don't volunteer for guard duty as too. This is already going to be delicate, I don't want them messing it up.'_

* * *

Over the past few days, Ruby had been kidnapped, locked in a cell, and denied contact with those she held dear. While by no means was she hurt, the young huntress was missing the things that she'd come to rely on for support for her time at beacon.

' _I'm uninjured, well-fed, and will be returning home soon, so why do I feel this way?'_

Every second in her little cell, Ruby began feeling more and more anxious. She had no reason to, she was fine for several days, but all of a sudden, it was as if the fear and doubt that she should have felt when she first arrived was flowing into her. Many dark thoughts began to swirl around in her head.

' _What if the deal's called off? What if Roman's assassin escapes? What if Torchwick's lying to everyone, and won't give me back? What if...'_

All these possible situations came to her, and for each one of them, one thing was constant. _'He wouldn't need me anymore, and would have no reason to give me back.'_

Four days ago she had been captured. Since then, this was the first time she'd ever really considered these as possibilities. It scared her more than anything she'd faced since nearly being killed by the Deathstalker during initiation.

Roman isn't exactly one of the most trustworthy people she knows; that weird quiet girl can make illusions and _teleport_ , and what's one huntress out of the picture _forever_ versus an assassin in a prison that Torchwick himself escaped recently.

The shock of her situation had worn off. No matter how she had fared the past few days, Ruby was coming to terms with the fact that she was alone here. Right now, she lacked the support she'd received her whole life. From her dad and uncle. From Yang and their friends. From Crescent Rose and last but not least; from her cloak. When she had that cloak, she felt like her mom was still with her, guiding her through life and protecting her from whatever came. _'Like she really would if she was still alive.'_

While she'd overcome tragedies like the loss of her mother, the circumstances were much different. She was cared for, everyone was nice to her and tried to brighter her day as much as they could. Here, she would receive no sympathy; the only exception so far being Bradley.

Unfortunately, he wasn't on duty right now, what's worse is that the guard right now was the one Ruby had knocked out when she first woke up. This faunus was the worst one in the compound as far as Ruby was concerned.

A single noise from her set him off, something very common due to the impressive hearing his heritage provided him with. If she got up or moved around the cell, he would make a point of readying his weapon as if he thought she would try to escape, which unnerved her greatly. If he got bored on the job, he'd berate Ruby for hating the faunus, and threaten her repeatedly.

In short, he was quite possibly worst person to be near her when the huntress-in-training began to sniffle; trying to hold back tears that should have been shed when she arrived. He taunted her, insulted, threatened and yelled at her. Called her a murderer, a racist, a psychopath. Everything he said scared her and made her feel alone.

She moved to wrap herself in her cloak, but quickly remembered she didn't have it. Pressing herself into the corner of her cell, Ruby brought her knees up to her face, wrapped her arms around them, burying her head between her legs. Luckily, before he could reduce her to tears, Ruby's salvation came in the form of Theodore.

"Torin, you're shift is up, get out of here and leave the girl alone."

"I wasn't doing anything wrong Theo, calm down.

The large man glared down at the aggressor. "Are you trying to accuse a fellow faunus of _mishearing_ something. I know what I heard, and it was uncalled for. Get out of here before I remove you myself."

The man shot Ruby a glare before turning and leaving the room. The towering bear faunus came over to the table, grabbed a chair, and took a seat by the cell's bars as he always did. This time however, instead of sitting in silence, he began to speak to Ruby.

"Don't mind him, nobody in the regiment likes him. A lot of people here don't like you either, but even they're telling him to shut up. All he does is talk about how you 'need to suffer for your crimes' and such, it's actually starting to work against him now."

Ruby looked up with the tears she's held in still in her eyes, threatening to spill out. "Have you ever seen one of those commercials where you already want to buy it, but the longer the spokesperson goes on, the more and more you feel like it's a bad idea. That's exactly what he's doing."

The large guard smiled faintly. "Every second he's ranting about how you're 'receiving better treatment than any human should', more and more people feel sorry for you. There's even a petition to the garrison commander to get him off of guard duty to keep him away from you."

Despite herself, Ruby smiled. _'What's going on with me, a minute ago I was afraid, and now I'm about to laugh at this guy's stupidity. What's with me?'_ Seeing that the girl was alright, Theodore turned on his scroll and began to read something or other on the news.

After a while, the two heard the sound of the door open. Turning their heads to the entrance, they saw Roman Torchwick leaning on his cane smiling at them.

"Hello Re- Ruby, that'll take some getting used to."

Theodore stood at attention, while Ruby wandered nearer to the front of the cell. "What do you want Roman?"

"Well, that's what I was going to talk to you about. I want more information, but I don't think this is going to work out for us."

Ruby groaned, for a couple of days, Torchwick had been asking her questions that she just wouldn't answer. Roman can't burn the cape because if he does he has nothing to use against her, but if she doesn't give him any answers it doesn't help him to keep it.

"I just don't know what to do here. The only thing I have against you is the cloak, but if I burn it then I've got a pissed off huntress in a base full of incompetent animals."

He looked over at the guard. "Not you though, you're gr-"

"Didn't you say the same thing to Steve last week? Do we mean so little to you that you can't even make up new excuses?"

"Shut up. Anyways, how about this. I hold on to your costume, and you don't do anything stupid, agreed?"

Ruby rolled her eyes. "Why are you trying to make a deal with me? I mean, what if I refuse, I don't think it's really an option is it? And not that I'm complaining, but I don't think I can do much in here."

"Well, I'm _trying_ to be nice here. But let's try it your way then. Be nice and quiet, eat your vegetables, and be in bed by ten, okay? Don't cause any trouble, and I'll give you your precious cape back."

Roman turned and walked off. _'What a weird guy.'_

Ruby crawled onto her mat and curled up under her blanket. _'Three more days, I'm almost home. I've been here for half the time already, what could go wrong.'_

* * *

 **"What could go wrong." About as subtle as a freight train I know.**

 **If you haven't guessed, next chapter is where everything goes to hell. As painful as it is for me though, I AM writing a 'happy' story. Because of this, it won't be as bad as it could be, nor will it be as bad as it was originally planned to be. A warning though, next chapter will be a look into what I'd write normally. In a typical story that I plan on writing after this, it would be normal, but in comparison to the tone in this one...**

 **Don't worry though, I'm sure you've read a lot worse, if not, don't read anything else I write in future. Thanks again, Minesniper!**


	5. Revenge

**Okay, the darkest chapter I've written. I've read some messed up stuff (If you read my profile, you'll see that Blood Rose is my favorite fanfic), but writing it is completely different. I was uncomfortable as all hell writing what I did, and that's not taking into account the _original_ plan for what happened was _sooo_ much worse.**

 **I will write dark stuff in future, but when you reach 'the part', realize this is the last time I ever do something like that in the chapter. In future, it will be described vaguely or implied. And for people who suspect the worst from me, just remember, I stress it's much easier to read than to write, so to most of you, this will be pretty tame. So unless you're 10, and the most violent thing you've seen in My Little Pony (nothing against the show) then you'll be fine.**

* * *

Chapter five: Revenge

Ruby was worried. Earlier, she'd thought that she would be traded back to beacon safely, but from what Bradley told her, not everything was going so well on the other side of the walls that confined her.

The outpost's forces had been divided, both sides arguing constantly; the source of it, her. The faunus who didn't care about Neo and wanted her dead were pushing to have her executed as a statement. They claimed Neo could be retrieved a different way, though it's worth noting they never proposed such a method.

On the other side were the faunus who saw her as anywhere from misguided, to a poor innocent soul. In the cold war between the two schools of thought, Ruby's supporters had the upper hand. While there were a few more who agreed with Torin, the veterans of the White Fang tended to side with her in the arguments. What really was keeping her safe was that both the base's commanding officer and Roman had her back.

With the two people with undisputed authority on her side, Ruby would be safe. Anything against her would be considered treachery, and would be dealt with appropriately she'd been told. "Just realize, not everybody here is level-headed enough to truly understand the consequence of their actions." Bradley had cautioned her, "I don't know if the threat of punishment is enough to keep these morons in place."

Whatever the case, the White Fang commander had personally assured her that the cell block's guard detail was entirely consisting of volunteers who he knew believed she deserved freedom. She was grateful for this, but the fact that the guard duty roster had to be edited for her safety was unnerving to say the least.

Her captors turned protectors shifted every half hour. The commander, Torchwick, Bradley, even Theodore all signed up for a slot. Most of them sat attentively, scanning the room the whole time, those more familiar with her chatted, but there was still an air of tension and anxiousness.

The whole day Ruby sat around her cell, breaking it up with some pacing whenever she couldn't stay still. Her excitement at the prospect of returning to her friends and family, combined with the foreboding feeling in her gut kept her from getting any sleep.

Even with the shaken moods of the guards, the prisoner couldn't find any indication that there was any danger to her beyond the stories and attitudes of those who entered the room. _'Calm down, you're just getting the jitters. You'll be fine, even though I'm a prisoner, I think a couple of these faunus would actually sacrifice themselves to make sure I was safe, how weird is that?'_

Unfortunately for her, the next thought in her head brought Ruby's train of thought to what Bradley had warned her of earlier. "…I don't know if the threat of punishment is enough…."

' _I suppose the opposite may be true. A few are dumb enough to sacrifice just to hurt a 15 year old girl. No wonder Blake left, some of these people are crazy!'_

An alarm sounded off. Ruby jumped to her feet, and ran to the cell bars in a flash to see what was going on. Her frantic searching for the attack on her life that was surely coming was put to an end when the guard spoke up sheepishly; ironically he was a rabbit faunus.

"Oops, sorry about that! That's the alarm clock on my scroll, my shift's up. Didn't mean to scare you."

Ruby slumped down against her cell wall with a sigh. In that moment she thought that someone was coming to kill her, she'd felt fear she didn't know she was capable of experiencing. Obviously she'd never been fond of the idea of dying, but the actual terror that flooded her system when she thought it could be only moments away was all-encompassing.

' _Guess you can't really imagine what that feels like until you're actually in danger of it happening.'_

Still shaking from the scare she'd received, Ruby returned to her 'bed' and sat cross-legged on it. As the new guard took the former one's place, she could _feel_ the air get heavier. As if a huge weight was placed on her shoulders. The source of this oppressive tension was the mouse faunus who relieved the last watchman.

The young Rose couldn't place quite what was off about him today. He'd stood outside her cell nearly every day now, and hadn't ever given her a reason to worry about her safety. _'So why am I so nervous?'_

After several minutes, the hostage started to realize things that had been setting off warning signs subconsciously. The mouse faunus' name was Gus, he used to be a guard at a dust shop, until it was bought out by the Schnee Dust Company. Ruby could guess what happened thanks to Weiss's description of her father. Ruby talked about Beacon and her friends' adventures and all the fun they'd had. He had a wife and daughter back in Vale. He'd joined the White Fang for some income to help his family (The soldiers still were compensated, it wasn't solely volunteer), as well as his grudge against the SDC.

Ruby knew all of this because he was always talking to her. They'd spent the past several days talking about both their lives outside of the White Fang's base.

' _So why is he so quiet right now? He hasn't said a word since he got in, heck, he barely looks at me.'_

All at once, her thoughts are interrupted by a loud rapping against the door. With a gulp, and an expression of guilt evident on the White Fang guard's face, Gus grabbed the keys he'd used to lock the door and began towards the entrance.

"Gus? Gus, what's going on…."

The huntress trailed off as her 'guard' unlocked the door and slowly opened it. In walked Torin, the bull faunus scanned the room, before directing his attention towards the mouse faunus who returned the stare with an expression of disgust.

Although she couldn't make out most of what was being said, Ruby could make out bits and pieces of what Gus said in tones that were most likely meant to be hushed, but anger forced their volume to rise. The whole time they spoke, Torin took out his scroll, and Gust did the same.

"…. Medicine wasn't so... didn't need this then I'd… sicken me, you... don't have to… quick, she deserves that much…."

While she lacked context, anybody with half a brain could figure out that the mouse faunus made a deal he wasn't happy about. Given the other party involved, Ruby could guess what the deal was. She felt her chest tighten in fear as the two of them completed their transaction.

Torin and the bribed guard walked toward the center of the room. "You ready?" The intruder asked.

"One second, let me transfer the money to my family's account. You check to make sure nobody's coming" As Torin walked over to the enterance and peeked out the door, the mouse faunus hurriedly typed something on his scroll and pressed send. He took a deep breath and told the other White Fang soldier to come back. "I'm ready."

Gus cast an apologetic glance at Ruby, a glare of hatred towards Torin, and finally stared at his feet in shame. A curt nod from him cued the bull faunus to hit him over the head with his pistol. With his aura purposely lowered, the White Fang crashed to the ground, unconscious, as the offender rotated to face the occupied cell. He looked as if someone had broken in and knocked him out, which was most likely the purpose.

Ruby was huddled in the back of the confining cage that kept her penned in. Her mind was racing at a million miles an hour desperately searching for an escape. _'When he enters the cell, make a run for it, I can outrun him, maybe even beat him with my speed in a fight.'_

It would appear, however, he had planned ahead, and prepared for plans of escape such as this. The extremist raised his dust rifle and trained its sights on Ruby. Her cell had nowhere to take cover, nowhere to hide. The desk was cheap, and bullets would easily penetrate it, and nothing else was large enough to provide her with any sort of safety.

She was trapped in a kill-box with no way out.

Seeing her come to terms with the grim situation she was in, the bull faunus almost smiled. "Put your hands in those shackles on the wall."

The human girl quickly weighed her options. Either she did what he said, and hoped for the best, or she was gunned down by a killer separated from her with reinforced bars. _'It looks like I don't have a choice. Oh god, I don't want to die here!'_

Shakily, the terrified Ruby raised her right hand and clicked the restraint around it. It was high enough up that she could barely reach it without stretching. Putting her left wrist in the manacles, Ruby reached with her other hand to close them. A quick tug on her arm gave her hope.

' _I can't reach it myself since I'm already partially restrained. If he wants me trapped, he'll have to come in himself, I can do this. Just need to knock him out, and I might be able to get out of this alive.'_

The White Fang soldier placed his gun, knife, and keys on the table outside the cell. Ruby wouldn't be able to grab a weapon if he came too near now. As he approached the partially chained girl, she prepared to lash out. Shortly after he entered her reach, Ruby kicked out with all her might at the advancing faunus.

With speed she hadn't expected from him, Torin dodged her strike, and rushed in to grab her before she could ready another attack. Grabbing her dominant hand, Torin forced it into the shackle and locked it in place.

The young girl was defenseless against the faunus who stood before her.

"Please… what have I ever done to you?"

The angry man snarled at her, "What have you ever done to me? Nothing personally, but you _have_ ruined plan after plan. First you and your girlfriends interrupt a dust robbery, and get a few friends of mine arrested. After that you show up at the docks, do you have any idea how many friends were killed by that freak friend of yours!? Then you destroy our first mech, and to top it off, you ruin _everything_ about Mountain Glenn!"

Inhaling deeply, the enraged faunus continued. "We had tons of men in the train cars waiting. The plan was to give the Grimm about half an hour to spread through the city, then we'd follow behind them and set up a perimeter. We were going to have a safe haven for faunus and the White Fang set up in Vale with the territory we took!"

"But you and your friends kept the Grimm busy at the entrance, and they barely did _anything_. What's worse is that witch sealed the breach, which means that nearly 100 faunus were trapped in Grimm infested tunnels with no way out. You want to guess what happened to them? How many of my friends died, trapped in some god-forsaken train car with those monsters ready to kill any who ran?"

He looked down, and when he looked back up, he balled his fists and brought his arm back. "Nobody came back from the Mountain Glenn base, and no one ever will. You've killed dozens of my friends and hundreds of White Fang, and you wonder what you 'did to me?'"

In his rage, the bull faunus brought his fist forward and punched Ruby in the stomach. While her aura absorbed the impact, it had taken a bad hit, and Torin was preparing to strike her again. She tried to brace herself for what was coming.

"You, and all the hunters and huntresses, have done nothing but ruin everything we've worked towards, and you're going to pay for it finally."

He struck her again, this time, her aura began fading. The strength from his faunus heritage, combined with the strength built up from physical training gave him a devastating swing. Again he hit her, this time her aura broke. It stopped the attack for the most part, but the blow still hurt badly.

As Ruby gasped in pain as the bull faunus walked out of the cell and retrieved his knife. "I noticed you're friends with that Schnee heiress at beacon. You two have a lot in common?" He walked towards her, the gleaming blade bringing true horror to Ruby.

"I don't know if you're aware, but I'm not overly fond of Mr. Schnee, nor his family. You seem to be pretty close with her, let me give you something to talk about next time you see each other." With this, the insane man grabbed the helpless girl's head and held it still.

Ruby was scared beyond all rational thought, but as she caught a glimpse behind her hulking attacker, she saw her salvation. As Torin brought the knife closer to her face, saying something about "looking just like her", his hand's progress was suddenly halted as a curved, black hook caught itself on his upper arm.

Suddenly he was jerked back as the cord connecting the handle to the shaft on Roman Torchwick's cane retracted, pulling the man away from her, and out of the cell. His knife fell to the ground, echoing as cold steel clattered against the ground.

The traumatized girl was still chained in place, watching as her attacker slid back towards a group of people Ruby recognized. Her usual guards and 'friends' stood around the would-be killer with their rifles trained on him. Roman removed the cane's curved grip from Torin and reconnected it to Melodic Cudgel.

So far Ruby had seen Roman annoyed, even somewhat angry. But right now he was mad. He'd been in better spirits when she'd interrupted his dust robberies at 'From Dust 'Till Dawn' and the docks; maybe even at the breach.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" The jacketed man screamed at the traitorous grunt. "It's one thing when you're protecting yourself from an armed huntress on the battlefield, but that's an unarmed little girl in a prison cell! What kind of anima-…" Roman paused, his concentration broken for only a brief moment, " Point taken, still; we said to leave her alone, we _ordered_ you to back off! No matter how you feel about her, this is –by definition- treason!"

The commander took a step forward. "Our policy towards traitors is very clear. Given the evidence right in front of us, I don't think that we need to deliberate on the matter much. Theo, _escort_ him outside. Brad, get the poor girl out of those things. Wait here with her while we deal with this."

The wolf faunus snatched the keys off of the table and rushed to Ruby's side. Quickly unlocking the shackles, he realized that in his haste, he'd missed that they were the only thing keeping her upright. When her hands were freed, Ruby wasn't able to support her weight through the pain in her gut, so it was up to him to catch her and keep her from falling to the floor.

As the kind soldier gently lowered her into a sitting position against the wall, she could make out the fuzzy shapes of Theodore, the White Fang commander, Torchwick, and about four other soldiers the huntress had met at some point or another lead the man who'd injured her out at gun-point.

As Roman reached the doorway, he glanced over at the sniffling girl. "I'll be right back Red, just have to take care of this first." With that, the criminal left the room and closed the door behind him. Ruby brought her knees up to her chest and buried her head.

Taking in shaky breaths of air, the girl tried to calm herself, and prevent any tears from escaping. Bradley was quiet, he understood that right now, there wasn't much he could do to make her feel better. So he sat down next to her; the door was open, his gun was resting on the ground next to him, and he was leaning back against the wall. But Ruby didn't try to run, she sat there, still trying to comprehend what had nearly happened to her.

From the barred window above her head, she heard indistinct yelling. After a few seconds of the voice yelling out in short increments, the cracks of gunshots from numerous dust rifles, and the ever recognizable Melodic Cane, rang out simultaneously. Bradley tried to comfort her a little by telling her it was over; that she was safe now.

Despite his best efforts, he was unable to calm the girl. She had been seconds away from receiving a scar that she would bear for the rest of her life. Maybe only a minute or two away from death itself. Even though she did as she was told, even though all she'd done was comply with them, she was still nearly murdered. They'd promised she would be safe, and had it not been for the mouse faunus' last minute idea, they wouldn't have even known anything was wrong until the next guard showed up.

The dark thoughts swirling around in her head were put to a halt when the doors were thrown open, and her rescuers burst into the room. Roman quickly knelt by her and asked her if she was hurt, did she need medical attention, what did her do to her.

All the questions were overwhelming the poor student, she couldn't even think straight. Ruby held up her hand to the concerned man. "Please… can, can I just have some time alone? I… need to think…."

Torchwick was about to respond, but decided against it. After considering it for a moment, he quietly nodded his head, and motioned for the others to follow him. They all filed out of the of the room, and closed the door behind them.

Her cell was open, but the huntress knew that the exit would be locked, and -after what had just happened- certainly guarded. She was free to move around the area for once. To make sure she always had room to run, Ruby propped open her cell door with the desk from her room.

With that, Ruby lied down on her makeshift bed, and stared at the ceiling. She tried to slowly calm herself. _'He's gone. I don't think anyone will try something now, especially since Torchwick will try harder to keep me safe.'_

Thinking about the orange-haired thief, Ruby realized that he had been genuinely worried about her. Never once did he mention they needed her unharmed to get Neo back. He had yelled at the faunus for hurting her, not endangering the colorful girl's prospects of freedom.

At this, Ruby felt safer. While she still didn't trust Roman, –a good idea in any circumstance- she doubted any harm would come to her until she got back to her friends. With this inexplicable sense of security, Ruby Rose slowly drifted off to sleep.

* * *

 **So that happened. Obviously these chapters just went from 0-60, and next chapter will have more action, less 'beating up a defenseless girl'. Apparently I still have some kind of soul, since it was hard to write that. I can write gore, death, emotional traumatization, and I have no problem subjecting them to it off-screen. But I just don't have it in me to _torture_ a defenseless character who couldn't even put up a fight.**

 **Now there's no Neo POV for this chapter, since It's one of my longer chapters from either story I'm writing currently, and that's without doubling it to put in Neopolitan. So, next chapter, we'll see what happens with her.**

 **I finished writing this yesterday, and I'm finding that I'm making fewer and fewer mistakes in my writing. That said, since I only went over it a couple times, and didn't wait super long between them, it probably has a few mistakes. Once again, anything that's wrong should be pointed out immediately to me. If it's grammatical or a misspelling, reporting it via PM would be preferable, and if it has to do with the plot itself, it's most suited for the comments.**

 **Either way, I'd be happy to hear from you guys, and I will fix any errors I find.**


	6. Shaking things up

**Sorry about the last chapter not being a chapter. That said, the results of the poll were quite clear: Two stories at a time will remain my schedule. It was a tie between that and potato (congratulations, internet), with 1 person who chose 'I don't care'. I was surprised (happily) that no one wanted 3 fanfics ongoing at once. That means you're all happy with what I have now.**

 **Anyways, here as promised, chapter 6. This is the all Neo chapter, of course it all ends nicely, because I've gone soft apparently (I will rectify this as soon as possible, don't worry mentally disturbed audience). Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter six: Shaking things up

The sun was bright, the birds were chirping, wind rustled the leaves of the tree outside Team RWBY's dorm. Classes were started later today than usual, meaning the room's occupants were allowed to sleep in. Breakfast was the best meal Neo had tasted so far, and the three girls she was with were ignoring her for the most part.

It seemed that everything was going Neopolitan's way, for once. While others would enjoy the beautiful day, delayed schedule, and peace and quiet for other reasons, Neo saw beyond them. Rather, the lovely weather would mean more people out in Vale, the late first class meant she'd be making her escape when the streets were most crowded, and the distant team seemed even less on guard today.

' _Though, I suppose I can enjoy the food just for being good.'_ She thought as she chewed on another piece of bacon. Truth be told, Neo wasn't feeling too bad. She had been bored to death, but aside from that, Team RWBY had been tolerable. Except for frosty the snow bitch, Neo didn't like her one bit. _'Hang on a sec, I wonder if I can actually change the whole song to fit Weiss, hmmm….'_

Granted, over the few days they'd been forced into each other's company, she'd shown… improvement, if only a little. At this point, Neo would have even considered just waiting the two and a half days left, if only for the accommodations that an assassin missed out on when in the employment of an international terrorist organization. _'Would it kill the White Fang to get any actual beds rather than those stupid cots? And the food… ugh.'_

Unfortunately, Roman would not be happy about trading away the huntress who'd already foiled multiple of his operations. Neo would almost certainly receive a pay cut, and there was no telling if he had anything else planned.

In the end, a couple more days off wasn't worth the crap she'd have to deal with upon her return. After finishing with her food, Neo threw out her trash and put the tray away. Sitting down once again at the table, she saw the girls from RWBY were in no hurry to go anywhere, so Neo tried to find a way to keep herself entertained.

Team JNPR entered the large room, and after grabbing their trays piled high with food, they sat down by RWBY. "How are you guys holding up?" Jaune asked.

"We're alright, our system seems to be working, and it's only a couple more days until Ruby comes back." Blake replied.

"And how's mean ice-cream lady?" Nora spoke up, "Do we need to break her everything?"

Ren put a hand on his partner's shoulder. "Nora, it's not kind to threaten her like that, even if she works for Torchwick."

The table turned to look at Neopolitan's reaction, but she sat still; staring ahead, eyes glazed over.

Pyrrha looked at the criminal in confusion. "Is… she okay? Neo?"

' _..._ _Frosty the snow bitch, was a horrid snobby girl. With her perfect dress and her lacking chest, She makes me want to hurl….'_

Yang leaned over and snapped her fingers in front of the short girl's face. "Remnant to Neo, you there? Hello?"

After shaking her head and blinking a couple times, the assassin turned and glared at Yang. "What'cha thinking about Neo?"

"Nothing." She answered dismissively. "Did you need something?"

Yang shook her head. "Nah, you were just spacing out, decided to check on you."

Rolling her eyes, Neo went back to tuning out her captors. Occupying herself by trying to come up with more verses for her song. _'Now, what rhymes with 'eviscerate'.…'_

* * *

"Remember you two, keep an eye on her, we're not done yet."

Yang just waved her hand nonchalantly. "Yeah yeah, don't worry princess, we'll make sure she doesn't sneak away. You have fun in class now!" Shooting Yang one final glare, the white-haired teammate left the dorm for Oobleck's lesson.

Immediately, the two other members began to relax. Yang laying down on her bed, Blake sitting in a chair to read. Meanwhile, Neo lazily sat around as she considered her options. _'Obviously, step one is to eliminate the bigger threat of the two, Blake. After that, Blondie'll be a walk in the park.'_

Carefully, the quiet girl planned her actions, and tried to imagine how they'd play out. Her three worries were being fought on two fronts, being interrupted, and having Beacon placed on lock-down.

If her first strike couldn't incapacitate Blake, then Neo would be on the wrong side of a very tiring fight. If anything was too loud, someone could hear and come to their rescue. This ended the same way as the first problem. If Beacon was placed on alert, fully fledged hunters would be able to match her in a fight easily.

Whether or not she succeeded in bringing down the faunus could make or break her plan, but she couldn't do much to help her chances. However, luckily the other two concerns were possible to work around.

Yang didn't keep her bracelets on while in school uniform, so Neo would have to wait until she changed for her turn at going to class. While this meant she'd only have a few minutes before Weiss returned, with any luck, she'd be long gone by then. Without those explosive rounds, any noise they made would be sufficiently muffled by the walls.

As for preventing security being alerted, she simply had to act fast enough to keep the team away from their scrolls. If they had time to get them out, and then she damaged the devices, there wouldn't be a way to alert the staff.

Running through her plan again and again, Neopolitan made little additions here and there to sate her appetite for the dramatics. Sure, the black-haired teen needed to be dealt with before she could mount a defense, but why not taunt her a little. _'Now, how can I do this. It needs to be innocent, or at least confusing, enough she doesn't realize she needs to react before it's too late.'_

For the hour of time between when she began to plan her escape, and when Yang went into the dorm's bathroom to change, Neo had been able to finalize her strategy.

Once the lilac-eyed guard exited the adjoining room, now conveniently unarmed, Neo entered behind her. Striding over to the counter, she searched for the bottle that once held her aura-suppressants. _'Where is it? Why of all times is it somewhere else now? I don't need them, but it'll much funnier if I do have them.'_ Opening the drawers beneath the counter, and the cabinets mounted above, she eventually located the tic tacs.

' _Are you serious? Come on!'_ They were placed just out of her reach. She could reach it if she climbed up on the counter, but that made her feel like a child. _'I really want those, but is it worth it?'_

"Honestly, I don't know why Ozpin thought he needs us, he could just give her those pills and put her in a play-pen. She hasn't tried anything, even I'd have given escape a try by now." The blonde's voice came from the other side of the door.

' _Definitely worth it.'_ The short criminal scrambled up onto the counter. Standing up slowly, she reached for the bottle, and started to sit back down. After sliding off the counter, Neo checked that the door had been closed and no one had seen her. _'If anyone knew I did that, I would kill them.'_

Leaving the room with the tiled floor, she decided it was time to make her move. From the past few days, she'd seen that Weiss would return in less than 10 minutes. While the others would come back earlier or later each time, Little Miss Perfect was very punctual.

Walking up to Blake, Neo stood in front of the reading girl until she looked up. "Yes Neo?"

Smiling deviously, the assassin held out her hand, which contained the pill bottle. "Breath mint?" Neo offered. While Blake was still trying to figure out whether or not the woman had completely lost her mind, the prisoner's leg shot out. Before she could get out of her chair, and away from her attacker, Blake was caught by the blow and knocked out of the way.

Hearing something hit the floor, Yang directed her attention towards the room's other two occupants. Her gaze settled on Neo grinning from ear to ear over her now unconscious partner. "What the hell!?"

Whipping out her scroll, Yang began to press buttons quickly. Before she could get out any sort of message, the electronic flew from her hand as Neo smacked it away. It careened across the dorm, before colliding with the wall. It ceased to glow, and lied on the wooden floor.

Deciding that she'd take care of this herself, Yang Xiao Long jumped at Neo. Swinging her fist with all her might, Yang crushed Neo's head. Wait, crushed wasn't quite right… shattered was more accurate. Her blow crashed through the illusion, and it's momentum carried her forward, throwing her off balance enough for her short combatant to trip her.

"How? I thought you needed an aura to use a semblance!" Her grin still present on her face, Neo opened the container, poured several of the pills into her hand, and tossed them in her mouth. "Would you like some tic tacs too?"

Growling in rage, Yang rushed towards her opponent, in her anger, forgetting how their fights always seem to go. Punching with her bare fists, Yang still hit incredibly hard. Not that it mattered, the tri-colored girl simply avoided every swing with ease, her Cheshire smile never wavering.

Unfortunately for Neo, the small dorm room is already fairly crowded. While she can dodge for a little while, she rapidly runs out of space to maneuver. While by no means did this give Yang a chance of winning, it did mean that the assassin would have to cut this short.

Vaulting over the brawler, Neo landed a kick to her back before landing and moving away. Turning around rapidly, the now red-eyed girl swung yet again. _'Has she seriously not learned her lesson yet? This is getting pathetic.'_

Neo teleported behind her and delivered another kick, this time to Yang's leg. The huntress turned the fall into a roll, and got up swiftly. Her eyes filled with murderous intent. _'Too bad, Goldilocks. I'm not going to deal with Roman whining about me getting captured, or having to give up a pay check because I cost him a hostage. I'm getting out of here now, not a minute later.'_

Returning to simply dodging the swings and jabs thrown her way, Neo moved the fight in-between the two bunk beds. She waited for her moment, and then, began the final part of her plan.

Dodging left, then right, Neo lured the blonde so that she stood in line with the foot of the bed kept up by books. Suddenly running forward, Neopolitan ducked her head under the girl's swipe and the poked it right back up again, only inches from the huntress. _'Checkmate.'_

Yang brought her arm back, and thrust if forwards, level with her tormentor's face. Mere moments before it connected, Neopolitan disappeared in a bright flash of light. She teleported over to her exit, crouching on the window sill as she watched the fruits of her labor with glee.

Sailing forwards still, Yang smashed through the pile of books that kept up her bed. As the supporting column was tossed away, the bed began to slide off of it's foundations. It tilted toward the blonde girl, and quickly fell towards her. "Uh oh…."

Her eyes reverting to lilac in surprise, Yang tried to hold back the heavy object, but it had already begun to fall. Flaring her aura, the girl was able to protect herself from injury as she was pushed to the ground. Crushed beneath her toppled bed, Yang fought desperately to free herself, but to no avail. She was trapped.

Neo turned away, and unlocked the window. Pushing it up, she began to climb out onto the ledge just beyond. Looking back one final time, the assassin wanted to remember the look on her helpless victim's face. She expected to see hatred and anger evident in Yang's eyes, but instead, she found tears.

"Please… please don't go! We need you, please don't do this!" Neo was confused for a moment; in her efforts to escape, she had forgotten why she was even being returned. _'That other girl… Ruby wasn't it?'_ And then she understood.

"If you go back to Roman, then he doesn't need to give us Ruby. If she's no use to him, he… he might…." Yang couldn't even say it. The thought that she could lose her baby sister forever because she couldn't protect her, was too much for her.

Neo wasn't soft by any means. She had killed before, and didn't have a problem with doing it in future, but this was different. She killed for a living; in her eyes, it was either them or her. But here, she was already safe. There was going to be an exchange, and by leaving, she would doom Ruby. _'I'm not getting paid if she dies, I have no reason to hurt her.'_

If she stayed, she'd have to take on more missions for Roman. If she left, a young girl died; alone, scared, away from her friends and family. Every time she went to finish off a target, they were terrified. But this time, the fear wasn't for her, it was her sister's well-being. _'Oh what the hell, I might regret it later, but I can't do this.'_

Re-entering the dorm, Neo approached to pinned huntress. Yang wriggled under the weight of the bed, trying to escape it's confines, fearing that the nearing girl was going to finish her off. Surprisingly for her though, she heard Neo say, "Push it as hard as you can, I'll try and use my aura to help as well."

With some time, and a great deal of effort, the two managed to free her. Yang sat down on the floor, leaning back against the side of the undisturbed bed. "Why? Why did you change your mind; why come back?"

Neo shook her head. "I'm not sure… I just didn't have a reason to hurt her. Despite what you might think, I don't absolutely need to kill for fun. I didn't have much to gain by leaving, but what she stood to lose…." Yang nodded in understanding. "Thank you." She whispered. Neo grinned at the girl, just as the door opened.

Weiss entered a room in shambles with one team member unconscious, and the other on the ground, with a smiling assassin standing above them. Taking out Myrtenaster, Weiss set it to ice and swung the blade; a small ball of ice formed in front of her.

Neo turned to look at the heiress calmly, until she realized what the situation looked like. Before she was able to offer an explanation, the new arrival had already formed a glyph around the floating ball. Neo watched with her jaw hanging open as the black symbol turned bright red.

"Oh son of a b-"

* * *

 _Beep… beep… beep…._

' _God dammit, not this again.'_ Neo thought as she woke up again for the second time that week in one of Beacon's hospital beds.

Investigating her situation, Neo once again found herself cuffed to the bed with the aura-suppressant being delivered to her by an IV tube. _'Really, I would have thought that coming back would be enough evidence to at least do away with the restraints.'_

A nurse that had been walking by took notice of her awakening, and sent a message on her scroll before walking off again. Relaxing herself, the patient waited for the arrival of whoever received the text, the headmaster no doubt.

As per her predictions, Professor Ozpin entered the room, flanked by (R)WBY. "Sorry about the arrangements, but they are necessary to keep the general off my back. As far as he is concerned, the situation hasn't changed; Ms. Xiao Long was horsing around with her bed, and when it fell, you were injured because you did not have an aura to protect yourself."

Understanding the reasoning behind it, Neo accepted his answer. "So… what now?"

The headmaster, clearly having thought this out, responded without hesitation. "I am tempted to allow you freedom of movement given your voluntary return. However, I would rather be safe than sorry; your time here will remain the same. I am keeping you on the aura suppressants, which will be kept locked up, _as they should have been originally_." He finished this statement with an edge, as he shot the girls a glance.

The three of them looked at the ground, Yang rubbing her neck sheepishly. "In any case, while I hope your position on the matter does not change, and we have no further incidents, I would rather not make it as enticing to escape again."

When he turned to the team, they flinched a little; they clearly had already been chewed out for their mistakes. "You three will be more careful this time, I presume." The girls nodded quickly. "Good, then I will be off. And Ms. Neopolitan, thank you."

With that, he left the infirmary. Once the doors shut behind him, Neo looked at those around her. The girl who she kicked in the face, the one she crushed under a bed, and the last one who'd launched a ball of ice into her head at mach 3.

All three of them with a team mate that could have been injured, had Neo not changed her mind at the last minute. Each stared at her with a different expression. Weiss seemed to be alternating between angry and apologetic, Blake was understandably annoyed by the throbbing headache she doubtlessly felt, and Yang was smiling. Neo looked back at them with somewhat of a nervous smile.

"Well… this is kinda awkward…."

* * *

 **Of course she came back and was really nice and stuff; what else would I do here? This is the nice me trying to return after being years of suppression. Anyways, yes she's staying, now next chapter we get the really happy stuff. Oh well.**

 **As always do those things every author asks you to do, because it's really nice of you. I emphasize the 'remember to follow' part because just 2 days ago, I had a conversation with someone who liked the first chapter, but forgot to follow the story. They didn't realize it until I sent them a message about what I was writing.**

 **Now, let us all bask in the horrific goodness that is RWBY. I _never_ thought anything I wrote would be lighter than the actual show, but here we are. Have fun everybody!**


	7. To those who wait

**Almost didn't get this in on time; I started writing the day after the last Hollow Fragments went out. I then realized on Wednesday that I had been writing HF chapter 8, and it was Parallel Prisoner's turn for a chapter, oops. Still managed to get this out, thought it was a bit tough since I usually do these bit by bit. Forgive me if I make any grammatical or spelling mistakes, and point them out, as always.**

 **This is mostly just cleaning up the events of the past two chapters, and setting up for the finale. I was considering an epilogue, but I think I'll just add it on to the end of the last chapter so I can move on to Family Gifts two weeks sooner (since the order would change from PP, HF, PP, HF, FG to PP, HF, FG).**

 **I'm trying to remove unnecessary chapters, because I still have over 1 year of chapters to write and upload (provided I go 1 chapter a week) and I haven't planned out all the chapters to the end of any story except this one, so yeah. Most of my stories are planned to be pretty long, easily taking a year, maybe two for some at this rate.**

 **Anyways, enjoy my story, in all it's... something.**

* * *

Chapter seven: To those who wait

Waking up in the hospital is never fun. Either you were hurt badly enough that you were unconscious when you arrived, or the situation is serious enough you've had to spend at least one night there already. Even now that they had returned to the dorm, Neopolitan's pounding headache was a constant reminder of which one it was. Luckily, her aura had taken most of the blow delivered by Weiss's floating ice-ball of death. ' _I don't want to think about what would have happened if I didn't have my aura up. Wait a moment, that reminds me…_ '

"Weiss, how did you know I had an aura to protect me when you started your one-sided snowball fight with me?"

"I didn't" She replied calmly.

In contrast to her reaction, Neo's eyes widened significantly. "Then why did you hit me hard enough that I broke part the wall where my body impacted it?" She emphasized this point by pointing at a hole in the drywall, through which the students could see beams of wood and electrical wiring.

"Simple you moron, there were two possibilities. Either you had your aura back somehow, or you did all that damage without one. If it was the first one, you'd survive… probably. If you managed to destroy our room, knock out Blake, and beat Yang without an aura, then there was no way we could keep you here. On top of that, despite what your track record may indicate, it's not exactly _easy_ to take out two huntresses in training. If we started fighting, I don't think I could have beaten you alone."

Neo shook her head. "First off, I don't like that 'probably'. Next up, you were prepared to kill me rather than let me escape? That's cold, Ice Queen."

The assassin watched in amusement as her face turned bright red. "Which of you two told her that you call me that!?" Neo chuckled as the partners looked at each other in confusion.

The short girl said, "They didn't say anything, I just heard Roman call you it. He'll love it when I tell him your own team agrees with him." Now it was Yang's turn to laugh.

Trying to change the subject, Weiss turned the conversation toward Neo once more. "Why do you even work for that degenerate. I mean, he's stealing from people, is working with terrorists, and now he's a kidnapper too!"

"It's his positively _shining_ personality. Why do you think? With all this work he's had recently, I make more than the entire council of Vale combined!"

"Bull, there's no way you earn that much!"

Neo smirked, "We have more of your company's dust in this city than all the shops together, if we started selling it, we'd be set for life."

"Why don't you" asked Blake. "I mean, if this is all about money, why not just sell it and get out?"

Rolling her eyes, the criminal explained. "One, if a bunch of random people start popping up with dust to sell, it'll look suspicious. Two, that's not part of the plan, and I wasn't hired to do what I want. Three, I could probably live off what I have now easily if I could pick up a normal job. But when you're wanted in every kingdom and you have no experience with anything employers want, there aren't a whole lot of job opportunities. Believe it or not, 'professional assassin/criminal bodyguard' is a fairly limiting career field, you kind of go all in when you start."

Yang looked over at Neo. "What if you could stop? I mean, Ozpin's pretty understanding, he's even being nice to you despite the circumstances. What if we convinced him to let you come here, or become a huntress, since you seem like you'd have already passed."

The short girl mulled it over for a bit, ' _well, the White Fang beds are really uncomfortable. Wait, have I seriously gone so far that in a profession of killing people, my biggest issue is about being comfy when I sleep? Damn, maybe I should consider their offer_ '.

"Talk to him, it's kind of in his hands anyways. I'll think it over, but no promises."

The blonde flashed a smile. "You never stood a chance; we're just too nice to say no to, except Weiss, then it's fun to say no to her."

"Why does everyone want to ruin my day?"

Just then, there came a loud knocking at the door. It sounded as if the person responsible was trying to break it down with their fist; muffled complaints of "Nora!" could be heard on the other side. Yang casually strolled up to the door and waited. After a short time, the knocking became louder, and in slightly longer intervals.

Waiting for just the right moment, the blonde placed her hand on the knob and flung the door inwards. Nora Valkyrie's fist carried her forwards so that she fell to the ground, arms spread out wide. The orange-haired maniac looked up. "Hi Yang." Swiveling her head that she trained her sights on Neopolitan, Nora donned a much darker expression and jumped up off the ground. "You! You hurt my friends!"

Reaching behind her, the girl brought out Magnhild. Converting it to it's hammer form, she marched toward Neo.

"Uh, guys, I actually don't have an aura now! She'll kill me if she hits me with that thing! Stop her… please, guys?"

Blake stood in-between their 'guest' and Nora. "Nora, don't hurt her. She came back on her own, she decided to stay in order to help Ruby."

"But she kicked you in the head! She trapped Yang under her own bed! She made Weiss really grumpy, and when Weiss isn't happy, nobody's happy! Ooh, that first part rhymed!"

Yang laughed as the heiress once again glared at someone making fun of her attitude. "Down, Nora. Leave the nice lady alone."

"Fine." She said reluctantly, drawing out the 'i'. Compacting Magnhild into it's grenade launcher form, and reattaching it to her back, Nora flopped down on one of the beds. The rest of JNPR stood in the door awkwardly, watching the strange scenario unfold. "You guys can come in if you want."

With the two teams situated, they began to talk about what exactly had happened. "Tic-Tacs? She tricked you with Tic-Tacs?"

Yang rubbed the back of her neck in embarrassment. "What can I say? Ruby does all the thinking around here, I just go with whatever she says." She said jokingly

"Speak for yourself." A disgruntled Weiss muttered.

"No, I'm with Yang on this one." Neo interjected. "I've been here for nearly a week, not once have I seen them use their brains." Nora reached behind her. "I'm kidding!"

Satisfied, Nora took her hand off her weapon. "So, what are you guys going to do with her last day here? Are you going to go somewhere?"

The three members of RWBY that were present looked at each other, and then towards Neo. "Well, we haven't really thought of anything to do." Said Blake. Maybe we could-"

"I know what we should do!" Yang suddenly exclaimed, "let's all go out for ice-cream!"

"Sure, did you have anywhere in mind" Neo said, before the warnings of "Neo, don't!" could reach her ears.

"Great! I know this place with great _Neapolitan_ ice-cream!" She said in victory.

Neopolitan stared blankly at her. "That wasn't even remotely good! Yes, it sounds exactly like my name, but.… God you're horrible. You were about as subtle as a train crash; but when one of those happens, you can't tear your eyes away. But I don't want to see you ever again." Yang smiled smugly. "You're just mad because you didn't think of it first."

"But I did! _Everyone_ did! That is the _first_ thing _anyone_ thinks of when they see me! You weird, delusional moron!"

* * *

All things considered, except the whole 'near death experience' thing at the hands of one of the more _opinionated_ faunus, Ruby was fine. The encounter had left her with few injuries, the pain having faded entirely. But the incident had left her in a bad way in regards to her emotions.

The fact she nearly died, or at least was nearly scarred badly, was not lost on her. But it was more of what Torin had accused her of that left a mark. She hadn't really thought about the men thrown off the train, nor had she considered that many of them were still behind the wall when Glynda Goodwitch sealed the breach.

It showed her how easily someone who thought they were doing the right thing could make such huge mistakes. She, for the first time, really understood the White Fang, how Blake and her comrades could do (or had done) such things, and still believe they were delivering justice. It was the same thinking that drove her attacker, and that had sparked her interest in becoming a huntress.

The idea that one was fighting for the right cause could make them go to the ends of the world to accomplish their goals, and blind them to the flaws in it. It scared Ruby. If her life-long dream could bring such consequences on others, even if they were criminals, was she doing a good thing by going to Beacon?

Odd, how being attacked by someone could make her wonder if she was doing the right thing by stopping them. As she had her internal conflict, Ruby was pacing around the room. The one good thing this had brought her, was that she now had more room to walk around in.

To make sure she was never trapped again, in case of another attempt on her life, Roman had allowed her free reign of the whole room, rather than just her tight cell. There were always two guards on duty, and they were all very monitored by camera as an added precaution. Shortly after she'd calmed down the previous day, Roman had returned with the mouse faunus who had let Torin in.

They had decided that she should be able to hear what he had to say, since she was nearly killed because of him. She recalled the conversation well.

" _Why… why did you do it? I trusted you…."_

" _Please, believe me Ruby, I didn't want to, but my wife is sick. We couldn't afford any medicine, and my daughter… I work in the White Fang, I wouldn't be able to take care of her alone, and that's assuming they didn't figure out what I do? I'd never be able to raise her, and I couldn't let Ellen die!"_

She had wanted to hate him. A thought that, looking back, scared her. She had wanted to condemn him for what he did, for nearly getting her killed, helpless in some cold cell in the middle of nowhere. But she couldn't. She knew what losing a mother felt like. She saw how her father had changed when Summer had died. But Ruby had Yang, and as distant as he was at times, Taiyang was still there for her.

If Gus's daughter had neither, how would she get by? A dead mother, a father branded as a terrorist, and on top of it all, she had to deal with the anti-faunus prejudice the world still held. That disease was a death sentence for both mother and child, and Ruby _had_ become a huntress to save lives, no matter who they were.

' _If they were going to be slaughtered by Grimm, I would have given my life, if necessary, to save them; that's my job. The difference is that Gus still sent out a message for help, hoping it would arrive in time. I didn't die, and now neither will his family._ '

No matter how angry she'd been, how close to her end she had come, Ruby could not bring herself to hate the faunus. It seemed as if everyone was motivated by saving lives, just different ones, and from different threats.

For her, it was everyone from the Grimm. For Gus, it had been his family from a disease. Torin committed his acts in the name of protecting all faunus from the 'evil' humans. She may not have agreed with the methods, but each one believed they were doing what had to be done. How could she fault them for that?

" _Come on you, it's time to go."_

" _Wait, don't hurt him. He was just trying to help his family, and he did manage to save me still. I don't know what punishment you were planning, but he doesn't deserve it. What if you had to choose between your family and some stranger?"_

 _Theodore had looked thoughtful when she said this. He nodded curtly, and led Gus out of the room._

Ruby didn't know what happened to the mouse faunus. She didn't know if he was let off, kicked out of the White Fang, or if he met the same fate as Torin. She didn't expect to see him as a guard, given what had happened, and she didn't feel comfortable asking. ' _I would be asking them whether they took the advice of their prisoner on how to handle a guard who defied orders. This whole situation is just a mess._ '

"Hello, Ruby." It was Torchwick. He used her real name, Ruby had realized. For the past few days, he seemed he used her 'nickname' only when he spoke sarcastically, or when making a joke. It was certainly interesting she was on a first name basis with a _criminal_. One who had taken her hostage, no less.

"Hey Roman, what's up?" She smiled as she thought about how she spoke to him like she would a friend. Objectively, he'd _not_ killed her, _not_ tortured her, agreed _not_ to keep her prisoner forever, and had _not_ allowed her to be hurt. All of things were things he _didn't_ do, yet they made her think of a friend. Technically, Cardin Winchester fulfilled these requirements too, but he certainly wasn't a friend.

"I just thought I should let you know, tomorrows the big day. And we got you a going away present."

Looking up at the criminal, Ruby found him holding… _her cloak_!

She disappeared in a cloud of rose petals, the two guards shooting up in confusion. A second later, she reappeared with her cloak, and Roman looking surprised at his now empty hands. "Thank you thank you thank you!"

He laughed at her antics. "Very funny, try not to do that tomorrow. I set up several dust bombs at the exchange site, so _please_ don't do anything that could make me jumpy."

"Why did you plant bombs there?"

Torchwick raised an eyebrow at the young huntress. "Are you seriously asking me that? Why would a notorious criminal, wanted by the General he just escaped from, want to set up some form of insurance at a hostage exchange between a terrorist organization and hunters, when the girl he's trading away has a speed semblance? I'm sorry, but I not walking into a trap unprepared."

The girl tilted her head. "Why do you think it's a trap, Roman?"

Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair. "Hello, Red… _It's me!_ What possible reason could you have to think they _aren't_ planning some kind of trap? They think they have a chance to re-capture me, and not have to give up Neo. They have an entire army at their backs, one which I recently embarrassed too, and I don't think they're all that forgiving right now."

Ruby looked at her feet, somewhat embarrassed. ' _Of course they're going to try and catch him, why wouldn't they?'_

"Umm, what happens if it _is_ a trap?"

The orange-haired criminal shook his head. "Then hopefully, they'll just give back Neo, and both of us can fly off without anyone exploding. I know they want me off the street, but I doubt the general is willing to blow up a bunch of his own men, as well as a few hunters, just to catch little old me. Then again, he has surprised me in the past."

Roman looked at Ruby before finishing his thought, "let's just hope it doesn't come to that."

* * *

 **I'll give you three guesses what happens! No, too silly. Nope, I'm not putting unicorns in either. There ya go, now you got it right! I honestly didn't expect you to use all three guesses.**

 **I think people more accurately predict this story's events than the weather, oh well, it's not exactly full of twists. So what to put here... nothing I guess, I'm just going to get back to trying to finish up the second teaser/chapter to Family Gifts (yes, my teasers are chapters. I don't want to remove them, and I don't want to have to write a small teaser, then make a full chapter later. So here we go, just write a chapter and release it early, boom, hooray for lazi- I mean efficiency!**


	8. Homeward bound

**Yay, the climax! It's my fourth shortest chapter yet, isn't that promising? Okay, so I was late on Hollow Fragments last week, and my policy is going to be that if I miss an upload, I finish both that chapter AND the chapter that's due to come out the next weekend and release both, that way I keep on schedule. This meant I wrote two chapters in the same time frame I write one usually, and the HF chapter is my longest yet.**

 **Anyways, here you go, I will say that at the _last_ minute, I changed how this was going to end. I'll tell you at the end notes, because otherwise I would spoil it, duh. I plan on releasing an epilogue, but that's going to be short, and I may just do it whenever I feel like, as opposed to keeping with the schedule. Enjoy!**

* * *

Chapter eight: Homeward bound

The bullhead was slightly cramped. Roman Torchwick, Ruby Rose, the White Fang commander, Theodore, and surprisingly, Gus were all standing in the back of the transport. Morgan was seated in front, piloting the VTOL that would return Ruby to her friends and family.

No words were exchanged by the passengers, as none were needed. The silence wasn't uncomfortable or awkward, it was nice; relaxing, a pleasant break from the hectic week.

' _I'm going home! Knocked out, locked up, nearly murdered; only a huntress could say that went better than expected._ ' Ruby thought to herself with a smile plastered across her face. She was positively overjoyed, soon she'd be reunited with her friends. ' _Speaking of them, I wonder how they've been doing. I wouldn't want to deal with Yang right now, I feel so bad for her, she 's always been really protective of me._ '

As Ruby thought about how nice it would be to home, Roman strode over to her. "Okay Red, here's how this works. When we reach the rendezvous, Teddy and Gus will walk with you to the halfway-point between us and the other group. Neo will walk to the same place with a couple of your beacon buddies. When you're both there, just keep walking, and the other four walk back to their bullheads; we all leave, and that's it."

"Really? That's it?"

"Not a chance. That's what would happen if Jimmy wasn't so stubborn. I guarantee he's going to pull some shit, and try to arrest me; hence the large quantity of explosive devises previously mentioned. If _that_ happens, I'll have to make sure they are aware of the situation, and hopefully we can still resolve it like civilized people."

Ruby sighed. "Nothing about this can be easy can it? I can't just go back to beacon even once the _criminal_ has decided to stop causing trouble?" Shaking his head Roman gave her an apologetic smile. "Admittedly, it's hard to blame them. I've robbed, manipulated, hurt, and now, kidnapped. Do _you_ think it's a good idea to let me go?"

"Fair enough." Ruby once again quieted down as she slipped deep into thought. Her mind was currently dominated by her thinking as a kid, and as a huntress.

As a 15 year old girl, Ruby was giddy with excitement. After a week in captivity of the city's most notorious criminal and an international terrorist organization, she was fine. A few scary things had happened, true, but she was free. Ruby Rose was relieved beyond measure, and it felt like nothing could bring her down.

On the other hand, thinking as the huntress she's been training to become, there was a foreboding atmosphere that had her worried. It didn't look like Roman particularly wanted to hurt her, and if he detonated the charges he'd be caught in the blast too. However, Ruby had no doubt that the man would do whatever is necessary to avoid returning to prison. And if that meant going down with the ship, metaphorically, so be it.

In seconds, her world could change forever. One wrong move could result in the young student leaving in Roman's custody once again, or worse, she may not leave at all. All the what-ifs that had been held at bay before Torin had attacked her had been flying through her head. ' _I saw her teleport in the warehouse, what if she teleports to Roman before we start? Or what if Ironwood tries to capture Roman. Yang gets irrational when she's mad, can she stay calm when she sees the criminal who took her little sister?_ '

So many nightmarish scenarios in which the exchange went wrong, where someone got hurt. Possibilities that turned her once cheery mood into one of equal parts apprehension and eagerness.

All too soon, the bullhead slowed. Leaning over to look back at the occupants Morgan called to them. "We've arrived at the site. We've got one bullhead, and several hunters waiting around. No sign of any others, but the forest around this clearing is pretty thick."

"Set her down." Was Torchwick's curt reply.

The aircraft began it's descent and the bay door swung up. Shielding her eyes from the light, Ruby blinked a couple of times before gazing upon the other occupants of the grassy clearing. Her heart swelled with joy.

Standing beside a landed bullhead were the rest of her team, her father and uncle, Goodwitch, and of course, Neopolitan. The only ones she expected to see that weren't present were Ozpin and Team JNPR. Though the former most likely had a lot to do and entrusted this to his second in command, while the latter had classes and such.

Once the vehicle was grounded, Morgan climbed out of the cockpit and with the other five, exited the transport. Now standing in the grass, Ruby began to feel free for the first time. She felt as if she could go anywhere, do anything she wanted. She could go home, spend time her family and friends, go back to Beacon and keep working towards her life goal.

Roman must have noticed this, because he stuck his arm out in front of the excited huntress. "Calm down Red, try not to do anything stupid when we're this close, okay?" She nodded.

The White Fang commander handed Theodore something that made Ruby's eyes light up. "Crescent Rose!"

Torchwick looked at her in surprise. "You named your _scythe_?" Ruby nodded enthusiastically. "Of course, everyone back at Beacon names their weapons! Didn't you name your cane?"

The criminal shook his head in disbelief. "No, I didn't. Some people _gave_ it a name, but I don't know why. Who name something 'Melodic Cudgel'? I will never understand you people".

Theodore and Gus each carried a dust rifle, Morgan had a dust pistol in one hand, and a sword in the other, the commander had a large sledgehammer-like weapon, and Roman carried his oddly named cane.

With the compacted weapon in his off hand, the large bear faunus nudged Ruby, urging her to walk forwards. Gus held his weapon ready as he walked on the other side of the girl. The criminal leaned on his weapon while the remaining two faunus stood ready with their guns aimed towards the other bullhead.

Ruby looks at the approaching party of three. It's Neo, escorted by Yang and Blake, Weiss likely being kept back for fear of one faunus deciding to attack her for being a Schnee. ' _That wouldn't have been a problem I think, but good planning on their part regardless._ '

As the two hostages met at the center, there was a moment of stillness. As if the whole world held it's breath to see if anyone made a move. All of the people by the bullheads trained their sights on the six people in the middle of the clearing. Those same six were scanning the area for any sign of movement. For a moment, the two prisoners' gazes crossed each other, and in that split-second, Neo gave the red-haired huntress a wink; the eye reopened as silver. She quickly blinked both her eyes, returning to their normal pink and brown.

Then everything went to hell. Of every _possible_ thing he could do, Ironwood decided that _now_ was a good time to apprehend Roman Torchwick.

As Morgan had earlier noted, the forest was dense, and from the green leaves and brown trunks, a contingent of Atlas personal came forth. Looking at the hunters and huntresses of Beacon, it was obvious they had not been informed of the general's plan; it was unlikely they'd even told him where it was happening.

"Roman Torchwick, White Fang, drop your weapons and put your hands in the air!? One officer shouted at the armed men that were returning Ruby.

Looking back at the ship she had arrived in, Ruby saw Roman reach into his coat.

"No… Please God no! I was so close! Why!?"

* * *

As soon as the Atlesian soldiers emerged from the woods surrounding the exchange in progress, Neo rolled her eyes. Turning her head so that the blonde member of Team RWBY was in her peripheral vision, she spoke up.

"Pay up Yang, this is what you get for your optimism."

"You haven't won the bet yet. If anything, the soldiers are helping me." Neo looked past her towards Roman, who was reaching into his pocket, a sly grin played across his lips, and none of the faunus moved to drop their arms.

"Yes I have, get that wallet ready."

The two girls had made a bet the night before. Neo insisted everything would go wrong, Yang placed her faith in the hunters to keep it all together. Five lien was going to Neo if the situation escalated to a dangerous level, Yang got the money if Torchwick didn't cause any problems they couldn't handle.

"Well ladies and gentlemen, it's always nice to see such a large audience!" As soon as he said this, his usual cocky tone present, Neo felt Yang press the five lien into her hand. "Unfortunately, you're also a _captive_ audience. Please refrain from trying anything stupid, General. I thought this may happen, so I took the liberty of planting numerous red dust explosives around the area. Don't worry, I made sure to get enough so you won't have to share!"

The soldiers kept their rifles aimed at the faunus and the bowler hat wearing man, but many looked around at the others, searching for an answer to their unspoken question, "what do we do?"

As it would appear, their orders came in just seconds later. Though she didn't actually hear it, Neo could imagine the anger in his voice when Ironwood said "Stand down."

All the Atlesian troops lowered their weapons, but the assassin could feel their glares through their helmets. Neo knew something could still easily go wrong. If Roman thought they may be chased after when they left he may take… precautions. So long her boss had that detonator, there were no guarantees as to how this would end.

"Let's try this my way, okay? Just keep going, pretend they're not here," he said this gesturing to the troops around the clearing, "and everything will be just fine. I get Neo back, you all can have Red, we both fly off into the sunset, and Atlas can dig up all the bombs and keep them. Just think of it as me returning the dust."

The two men who were introduced as Ruby's relatives were glaring daggers at the orange-haired man. Glynda managed to maintain a calm face, but even from her position, Neo could see how tightly she was gripping her riding crop.

The tri-colored girl redirected her focus to her red-haired counterpart, and nodded. Receiving a nod from the team leader in response, They walked by each other. Before leaving, one of the White Fang grunts next to her handed her a red box, presumably the weapon she had back in the warehouse. ' _What can only be described as a massive fuck-off scythe if memory serves._ '

When she passed the two faunus that had escorted Ruby up, they turned and walked back with her. She could hear the sister of the newly-returned hostage asking her questions quietly as the other trio returned to their bullhead.

Neopolitan calmly saunters over to Roman, when she stands beside her, Torchwick smiles down at the girl. "Welcome back kiddo, here's your present." The criminal handed her the pink parasol that had been recovered from the warehouse the battle took place in. Neo leaned against it and gave Roman a pat on the back.

Smiling the criminal looked up at the Beacon bullhead as it began to lift off. It hovered about 10 feet above the ground, and stayed still, it's door open. "What are they doing?" He whispered to himself.

Neo tugged on his jacket, getting him to turn his head down to look at her-

 _*SMACK*_

-just in time to get a frilly, pink parasol smacked across his face with all the strength the little mercenary could handle. The hit landed square in the middle of his face, and managed to send him back several feet, doing a little spin in the air before becoming reacquainted with the ground.

One bright flash of light later, and the teleporter was safely on board the academy's transport again. She saw Roman's hand flash to his pocket once more, only to come out with a pre-made note. On a piece of white paper, written in pink crayon (for comedic purposes only, of course) were the words "I.O.U. one 'get out of jail free' card".

"I've wanted to do that since the day I met him!" The now unemployed girl cheered, as her fellow occupants of the bullhead smirked at the criminal on the ground.

As soon as he realizes his situation, Roman calls for an evacuation. He and the four faunus leap into the craft before closing the door behind them. The division of soldiers began to fire at the vehicle, but to no avail. It soared off in the opposite direction.

The three vindictive hunters on board wanted to go after him, bring him in for what he did. However, Neo convinced them they would likely find some anti-aircraft guns when they reached wherever he was headed. He wouldn't lead them somewhere he couldn't fight them off easily.

On top of that, surprisingly, the little red-head spoke up in his defense. "He's not actually that bad. _He_ didn't hurt me at all, and was actually kind of nice at some times. He even made sure my guards didn't hate me just for being human!" While the others in the bullhead were staring at her in shock, hearing Ruby telling them he wasn't too bad, Neo was more interested in why she had stressed the 'he'. A slip of the tongue, no doubt, but one she would ask about later.

Ruby turned to Neo and asked her, "why did you betray Roman like that?"

' _Why indeed? Perhaps it was that despite the payment and the ease which I associated with that work, I was always a pawn in someone's game. Every life I took was just another calculated movement, and when I outlived my usefulness, the real mastermind behind this would sacrifice me just for a chance to catch them off guard. So long as I did what they wanted, I would never be free. Could it be that I took a stand to save not only Remnant, but to save myself as well? No, I see now what it was…._ '

"He was kind of a dick."

* * *

 **As I was writing the end there, I thought to have Ruby ask why Neo switched sides. She obviously would have spoken to the others beforehand, but they had no way to tell Ruby. When I did, I decided, to have a bit of fun and give her this speech of contemplating her life and freedom, only to end it with a basic, shallow reason.**

 **So, the ending change I spoke of was that originally, Torchwick was going to be arrested, rather than get away. However, this story has deviated in many ways from the original plans, and so I didn't want to do that to him. If you look at the Neo POVs, you can tell she sees Roman as more vindictive and cruel than he appears in the Ruby POVs. This is because originally, he was going to be a _lot_ less pleasant. Somebody in a review said he was Robin hood-esque; originally this guy would make the Sheriff of Nottingham look nice.**

 **It was going to be a dark fic with a happy ending, but I decided to make it lighter. For instance, in the first (I stress this part, _FIRST_ ) outline, Roman took a little longer to arrive, and Ruby came back with more scars than just emotional ones. But with this nicer Torchwick, a happier story, and everything just being more light-hearted in general, I felt bad about sending him and the kind faunus off to prison, so they get away, whoo for them.**

 **So this is pretty much it, aside from the epilogue coming... whenever... the story is done. So tell me how I did for my first fanfic. It's short, but it was never meant to be long, and I wouldn't end it any other way than with Neo's sagely words that close out this tale.**

 **Thank you so much for this three month adventure of ours,**

 **Minesniper**


	9. Epilogue

**So this is it, the end. Just over 3 months, and my first fanfic is complete. Yes, the ending was abrupt, but oh well, not too bad for my first go at writing voluntarily (i.e. not school/obligation related). This epilogue is just wrapping it up, giving a slightly better idea of where the characters stand at the end of this fiasco.**

 **Thank you all for the support, see you in Family Gifts, Hollow Fragments, or see you in Winter (if not later, though Summer will fuck with my schedule, given that I will be away from any technology for two consecutive weeks at one point, and vacations and stuff on top of that) for when one of my current stories finish. I may actually start a 3rd story, BUT it will be updated randomly, and will be a very different kind of story (there are reasons for both, I just won't give them. Tee hee).**

 **Speaking of new stories, I have (and will continue to have until I start my next story) a poll open right now. On my profile, you can see various stories I have being planned, with short descriptions for each. Feel free to PM me if you want more details about any of them. Vote on 2 (1 extra vote in case your first choice isn't as popular with others) so I know what to plan on doing next. I should mention the crime story on my profile is going to be an all OC cast, so keep that in mind.**

* * *

Chapter nine: Epilogue

"I missed you so much!" Ruby cried out as she embraced her sister. They were still returning to Beacon, all crowded into one bullhead, but Ruby wasn't bothered by it in the least. She was still overjoyed at being together with the ones she cared about.

The 15 year old girl quickly went over to her father and uncle, giving them the tightest hugs she could. "I'm so glad you're okay!" her father said, hands on her shoulders as he smiled at her, before pulling her into another hug.

"No love for Weiss Ruby?" Blake asked with a smirk on her face. Weiss's eyes widened as she realized what was about to happen.

"Oh you insufferable little-" She was cut off as Ruby tackled her in a hug. "Aw, I missed you too Weiss-y!"

After she recovered from her fall, Weiss tried to regain her normal demeanor. "Get off me you dolt… but, it _is_ nice to have you back as well."

Qrow raised an eyebrow, while Taiyang looks at the heiress with a hint of anger. "My daughter was kidnapped by a terrorist organization and held captive for a week, then is nearly blown up during a hostage exchange. Yet somehow you decide the first thing you should do when Ruby is finally safe is to insult her in front of me?"

"Um, I uh…" the heiress stammered. Yang laughed at her discomfort. "Don't worry dad, that's about the best you're going to get out of Ice Queen here; besides, I think it's almost a compliment at this point."

After Ruby finished expressing her happiness at being with Blake again, despite her insistence that her ears _didn't_ need to be pet, the occupants of the bullhead began to ask her questions about the last week of her life. The poor girl was overwhelmed by the barrage of questions, and it took Professor Goodwitch to bring some order to the transport.

The young huntress recounted her experience in the hands of the faunus. Ruby talked about waking up, how the guards who had traveled with her were good people, what the cell she was held in was like. Though she told her friends about the schism in the White Fang between those who would return her, and the faunus who preferred her dead, she left out the attempt on her life.

' _If Dad or Yang ever found out that happened, they'd never let me be alone. I love those two, but sometimes they're a little too protective_.'

When they confirmed that she hadn't been harmed (aside from the unmentioned attack), their conversation turned to what they were _going_ to do now. Immediately Qrow and Tai suggested that she go home and spend some time away from Beacon. Ruby quickly dismissed this by saying, "really, I'm fine guys! I don't need to take any time off to recover."

After a little bit of protesting, Ruby eventually convinced them the experience hadn't caused any emotional trauma. ' _Even the fact that I was captured is making them paranoid; definitely taking the whole almost-murdered thing with me to the grave_.'

Blake and Weiss both suggested they take the time to relax and recuperate, while her excited sister _insisted_ they go out and celebrate. "Why would we celebrate?" The heiress asked her. "I'm happy she's back too, but I don't think that 'celebration' is the best response. It's like throwing a _party_ because your food is now '50% less toxic'."

The blonde-haired brawler just snapper her fingers, an imaginary light bulb above her head turning on. "Weiss, you're a genius! We should have a party!"

Ruby laughed at her partner's face palm. That was, until Professor Goodwitch spoke up. "Actually, I would advise she take this time to catch up on her studies. If you remember, I believe Professor Oobleck has a test coming up this week."

Ruby's face fell. "Oh come on!"

* * *

The little red-cloaked girl had finally stopped zipping between her various acquaintances and giving them hugs. While the girl they referred to as Ruby negotiated with her companions on what they should no next, Neo just observed them with a small smile.

' _So this is the girl they were so eager to get back. After a day of working for Roman I wanted to kill myself. She's his prisoner for a week and is still this hyperactive, bubbly child. God knows how Ice Queen puts up with her._ '

After she was done complaining about already having to get back to her studies, Ruby turned to look at Neo and smiled. "You came back." Though it was a statement, the unspoken question, "why", was clear.

"Well," Neo began, "your sister managed to get Ozpin to agree _not_ to incarcerate me if I came back. If Roman tried anything sneaky, it was my job to get you out; I suppose going against him twice to save you is enough convincing." She turned to Goodwitch after saying that last part.

"Seriously though, he's way too trusting. I feel like he'd just let criminals in without question if they seemed nice from a distance." The huntress shrugged, "he hasn't led me astray before."

Returning her focus to Ruby, Neo finished her though. "Anyways, he decided he's make sure I got a decent job somewhere. Seeing as how I've already been caught once, I decided I'll take the safe way out of this mess."

"Oh." Ruby looked down at her feet. ' _She wanted me to say something about having a change of heart, didn't she? Oh what the hell, might as well say it._ '

"Besides, I couldn't just let you get hurt." Ruby's face brightened, before scrunching up in confusion.

"Wait a second, you said you 'went against him twice', what was the first time?" The rest of her team shuffled uncomfortably. Glynda looked at her with sympathy, while Ruby's father and uncle trained their gaze on Neo.

"Ah, yeah, about that…" Neo said with a nervous smile "I, uh… may have tried to escape once…."

The two hunters glared at her while Ruby's jaw dropped. "You were going to leave before he set me free!?"

' _Oh boy, this is going to be fun to explain_.'

* * *

"I can't believe she double-crossed me!" Roman yelled as he paced in his quarters. After the fiasco at the exchange site, his bullhead was forced to hightail it all the way back to their base.

He _hated_ those Beacon kids, they were nothing but trouble!

' _They interrupt our operations all the time; when we finally catch one we go soft on her, while everyone else became blood-thirsty monsters. Then, to add insult to injury, they actually convince a hired assassin to 'change their villainous ways'! I've had it up to here with these freaks!_ '

He blamed himself, how could he not? He trusted somebody whose allegiance was to themselves, and took a shot at getting her back over removing a thorn in his side for good. The worst of it was having to tell Cinder.

Oh, he was _not_ looking forwards to that call!

" _Hey, Cinder, remember how I had that brat who keeps messing with your plans?"_

" _Roman, if you have bad news for me, I hope you have a good explanation to go with it."_

" _Well, I decided to give her back in exchange for Neo. Only problem is the little mercenary decided she likes her new Beacon pals more than money."_

" _Are you telling me you have lost both the student and your assassin, on top of the warehouse with all the dust that you failed to protect?"_

" _Would you like the truth, or 'the truth'?"_

Torchwick wasn't sure whether she would be dead silent, or screaming in rage. Either way, he was going to have a _really_ bad day. Picking up his scroll, he went through the contacts until he found his boss. ' _Might as well get this over with._ '

"Cinder, darling, how _is_ your day going?"

" _What did you do this time, Roman?_ "

* * *

Headmaster Ozpin watched the landing pads in front of his school intently. When he saw the bullhead he had been waiting for set down, he looked through the disembarking passengers.

He saw both of the two short girls he had hoped would come back. "It would appear Miss Neopolitan made the right choice."

His thoughts turned towards how to handle his end of the bargain. He promised her a job, and she was more than skilled enough to attend his academy, but both her age (which was surprising, considering her stature) and her skills were beyond most students at Beacon.

On the one hand, she certainly had the fighting prowess of a newly graduated huntress, but on the other, she had no team and her knowledge of Beacon's curriculum was yet to be determined. Should she be placed in a first-year team next year, or should she be made a huntress to begin with.

"Hmm, not well-versed in combat against Grimm, but a skilled duelist. She has an intimate knowledge of the White Fang's operations… ah, now there's an idea." Pulling out his scroll, he sends Goodwitch a message telling her to send the two he'd like to speak with up to his office.

Returning to his desk, the old man takes a seat and waits for them to arrive.

Several minutes later, the door to his office swings open and in walks Neopolitan and Qrow Branwen. "You wanted to see… us?" Qrow asks, slightly confused. The headmaster smiled.

"I promised our new friend here a job, and I think I've found one for her." Looking at Qrow, he explained. "Your operations require stealth and precision, something Neopolitan quite clearly possesses."

"Oh, Oz. You can't be serious!"

"She is also very knowledgeable about our enemy, having worked for them for some time now. Twice, she has turned her back on them in the interest of helping us, and she's easily as skilled as any new graduate of Beacon. However, she lacks a team, and someone needs to keep an eye on her. I trust you don't have an issue with assuming this role, and bringing her along on your missions?"

Sighing, the scythe-wielder shook his head. "Good, then you can fill her in as you prepare to set out again. Take care, Qrow."

The hunter looked down at his new partner-in-crime. "Just keep away from my liquor, and we'll be good friends. Got it?"

"Oh God, it's Torchwick all over again."

Once his office was empty again, Ozpin stood before the window overlooking his academy. "Quite an interesting year indeed."

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 **And there we go, the end. It's been fun guys, hope to see you in other works of mine (accidental pun) soon! Once again, check out my other stories (3rd chapter of Family Gifts coming out now!), it may be some time before a new project starts.**

 **-Minesniper**

 **Now, how can I finish this off well? Oh, I know!**

 **You can be anything you want to be on the internet. Please don't choose 'idiot'.**


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